Lydia Davis 11

On the second floor

Of the provincial art gallery

He was pleasantly distracted

By a performance art piece

A young woman

Was proclaiming formalism to be camp

He agreed completely

Formalism is so preoccupied

With drawing attention to its own form

That it is clearly an assault against nature

Just as minimalism is theatrical

As minimalist sculptures are such an intrusion

Into theoretically neutral public spaces

He laughed at the performance artist

Now she was wishing that colour field painters

Would use some seriously flamboyant colours

Lime green canary yellow and flaming pink

Shaking up those humourless puritans

Yes minimalism and formalism are more than slightly

Camp.