OUTRAGEOUS ART NOT OUTRAGEOUS ENOUGH

As previously noted, some dubious American art is on display in London. Adrian Searle also dislikes the works but not because it's outrageous:

After 9/11, after Hurricane Katrina, after Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo, what should one expect from American culture, apart from rage and crawl-into- a-hole-in-the-ground-and-die abjection?

Most of art's audience already know what they think about the state of America and the war on terror. The job of artists, novelists, film-makers, musicians and playwrights demands that they go further than stating the obvious. USA Today is an expression, more than anything, of impotence.

A Bushitler painting spattered with real Iraqi blood would have been a show-stopper.