How do you expect people to take your work seriously if you let them laugh? I mean, if it doesn’t make us unhappy how can we know it’s great?

Excerpt from Robert Rauschenberg’s tongue-in-cheek parody of questions asked by art critics at a press conference. Reminds me of this great commentary on how comedy never gets its due.

Robert Rauschenberg essay, Half in jest/half unjust, 1959-1960. Leo Castelli Gallery records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

(via archivesofamericanart)