To predict the course of approbation is a folly. We get it right. We get it wrong. Or go trapezing from one to the other. Interestingly, the art-historical term 'pentimenti' refers to the corrections, to the reconsiderations, made by artists in the process of their working.
Pentimenti are useful in establishing authenticity.
They indicate the struggling hand and uncertain mind that lie behind later resolution. They can endure as subtle erasures almost invisible to the eye, or as rough obliterations obvious to the blind. This is a good and proper thing. By the same token, art criticism should manifest its mistakes with pride. In this combined filmic and sculptural installation, McCarthy acts out the craven routines of a crude caricature of The Really Expressive Abstractionist .