1111 Masterworks Opus 111   Absenteeism HAW, 2016, Museum of Most Modern Art   "Billionaire tries to sell his Rembrandt collection on the internet for 1 euro - and fails." This is just one of the recent headlines illustrating the change in the art market.     What happened ?   And why is an empty frame exhibited ? This is not the case. It is not an empty frame but a picture with a frame where the picture was removed; and that is something completely different. It is fantastic, innovative, and incredibly exciting. It challenges the intellect, probably for an indefinite period of time.     Why was the picture removed ?   Let's take a look at the past. Even the creative history of the work is a fascinating journey through cultural metabolism. It is a parade of tragedies, trials and tribulations, the search for goals and prospects, but also of tremendous success.   One can only speculate which visionary approaches were spawned by the desire for new ways of depiction. Just think of the acclaimed "rotating the picture", "hanging the painted side towards the wall", and the legendary "placing it in the next room". Then came a leap into a new visual language by removing the canvas and emphasizing the frame, as epitomized by the following genre piece.   Sunrise over Berlin TDI, 1990, Gallery Ignis Fatuus   Nowadays, this work is regarded as the muse for the colored periods of absenteeism.           Yellow Absenteeism          Orange Absenteeism          Green Absenteeism           Purple Absenteeism           Brown Absenteeism Multicolored Absenteeisms 1991 - 2015, Collection Normative Waste   After a decades-long ripening process, those pioneering icons resulted in today's blooming absenteeism.     What do the experts say ?   Scientific studies classify all former graphic art as an "Aesthetic jumble offering a playground for hordes of paint adulterators to act out their intellectual still lifes".   A high-circulation art magazine called DaVinci's Mona Lisa an "Overrated stick figure with the appeal of a dust mop".   The curator of a renowned museum apologized publicly for his Picasso exhibitions.   Famous critics compared absenteeism with a whale among shrimps in the ocean of art.     What are the consequences ?   While the establishment is retreating to stylistic niches, the concept is being transfered to other forms of expression. The most important spin-offs are the narrative absenteeism in literature in form of a multivolumed book with blank pages, the abstract absenteeism, without frame and without title, and the correlative absenteeism, whose beauty and complexity can only be imparted by means of the narrative absenteeism.   A more easily accessible variant is the subsuming absenteeism, with its abundance of additional associations and comprehensible subareas leading to the understanding of the major work.   Subsuming Absenteeism UNE, 2016, Suwarrow Museum of Fine Arts   Meanwhile, sculpture and theater thrill with their "Vacant Pedestal Approach" and "Cancelled Stage Show". At the ballet, the "Freezing Movement School" has by now set the standard. Moreover, the zero character ultrashort messaging service is accepted enthusiastically by consumers and will steer communication into a new era.   Just like a meteorite impact sent off the dinosaurs, absenteeism will encapsulate all previous art forms in the amber of memory and trigger new evolutionary trends.   An epic battle has taken place. Museums and galleries have mutated into fitness centers marketing the ruins of their misguided policies. Sports such as Van Gogh throw, trapshooting at Ming vases, and weightlifting with Michelangelo statues are in vogue.     What is left ?    After the collapse of the artscene, a simple franchising for absenteeisms evolved. Without effort and for just a small fee, anyone can purchase a certified original from authorized dealers and thus participate in the glamour of the artefacts. We experience the liberation of artists from art, the liberation of art from skill, the liberation of skill from artisanship, and eventually the liberation from form and contents.     How will it go on ?   Absenteeism opens a socio-culturell wormhole into the parallel world of meta-art. It is probably not the end of traditional art but an important step in this direction. Rumours about the development of absent absenteeism presage the next revolution. Optimism envelops us, and we are wallowing in anticipation of all the marvels which the future might      © 2016  EWS