When Art Makes Us Cry door Francine Prose op NYR Blog.

Art can, of course, do many things: dazzle us with its energy, its originality, its technical virtuosity; amuse, unsettle, or outrage us; comment on the culture in which we live; give us pleasure and provide us with intimations of mysterious beauty. It can touch us in ways that transcend the limitations of language. But quite aside from the question of aesthetic merit, less and less frequently does contemporary art do what “The Artist is Present” appears to have done—to inspire its viewers with anything approaching an extreme emotion.

Marina Abramović in The Artist Is Present, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010 (foto: Scott Rudd)