Hans Haacke, a father of Conceptual art and one of its chief political firebrands, has often made works incorporating lists, visually unlovely but highly effective ways to show how the world works. If you were to borrow the technique to show the unusual position Mr. Haacke has occupied in the art world for more than 50 years, the list might look something like this:
1. He has resisted allowing his face to be photographed, because he says that artists are too often fetishized as personalities.
2. He does not allow his work to be shown in art fairs and has attended only one, in Germany in the late 1960s, which so disgusted him that he flew back home to New York the next day. (“It was held in a circus tent, if you can believe that,” he said.)
