About 15 years ago I saw exactly the same thing at the Seattle Art Museum. I had a harpie left-wing girlfriend at the time who was an Art History major. She was with me and asked me what I thought of the piece. I told her I thought it was awful, knowing fully well that it was the kind of BS she adored. She proceeded to explain how the blank canvas was "brilliant". It seems that word is always used to describe things that are extremely pretentious but not clever in the slightest. My harpie leftist ex-girlfriend was exceedingly brilliant.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.