Comedian and cabaret artist Ursus Wehrli is on a crusade to tidy up art.

Why you should listen

Comedian and cabaret artist Ursus Wehrli is the author of Tidying Up Art, a visionary manifesto that yearns toward a more rational, more organized and cleaner form of modern art. In deconstructing the work of Paul Klee, Jaspen Johns and other masters into its component parts, organized by color and size, Wehrli posits a more perfect art world.

His book The Art of Clean Up extends this principle into the physical world, with extremely (though oddly) satisfying results. Click through to see what a bowl of alphabet soup would look like in Wehrli's world.

What others say

“After seeing him lecture and glancing through his book, I’ve been infected and try to tidy up everything I see now.” — designverb.com

Ursus Wehrli’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Ursus Wehrli

Art

Tidying up art: Ursus Wehrli on TED.com

November 13, 2008

Artist and comedian Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art — by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size. Beyond the whimsy, of course, is a serious message, to honor and balance creativity and messiness, form and chaos. (Recorded February […]

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