But it has been anointed the latest vanguard of the art world by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. For the first time, the work of Internet artists will be included in the Whitney's 2000 Biennial, the famous and frequently controversial exhibition that showcases cutting-edge art produced in the past two years. It's the first new art form to be introduced in the Biennial since video in 1975,'' says Lawrence Rinder, a curator. Internet art can no longer be ignored as a legitimate art form,'' he says. The Whitney says the nine artists' works combine literature, performance, animation, music and graphic design.
Some works are mostly text.
Others are collages of images and sound. One is interactive, requiring input from users at remote locations to produce a piece that will evolve during the exhibit, which closes June 4. But this is not art to soothe your soul. It's art that makes you work hard to figure out what's happening. Ben Benjamin's Superbad features graphics, abstract animations and satirical texts, all of which change daily.