The Abolition of Cinema 1968

Luis Camnitzer made this print, called 'The Abolition of Cinema', using etching and engraving. It’s all about simple marks, mostly, a bold circle and some text. But really, it’s asking us to think about how we see, and maybe, to question what we think we know about art itself. There is something sort of concrete about the print, in the way that we can see the line of the etching. But its also pointing towards something else, a moving image maybe, or the idea of something that moves. What exactly is being projected? Is this maybe a diagram of an idea? What does it mean to ‘abolish cinema’? The circle itself is a strong form, but it’s also broken, incomplete – like an opening that invites us in. Camnitzer reminds me a little of conceptual artist John Baldessari in the way he mixes text and image to question perception. It’s a reminder that art can be a space for ambiguity, where questions are more important than answers.