When Aesthetics Meets Politics In A Triennial Survey, Naivete Abounds

Peter Schjeldahl: In principle, the show’s aim reflects the New Museum’s valuable policy of incubating upstart trends in contemporary art. But it comes off as willfully naïve. Nearly all the artists plainly hail from an international archipelago of art schools and hip scenes and have embarked upon normal career paths. Noting that they share political discontents, as the young tend to do, is easy. Harder, in the context, is registering their originality as creators—like bumps under an ideological blanket. But there’s insight to gain about emergent sensibilities in world art, without hustling everybody toward illusory barricades.