John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres at Alexander and Bonin

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/12/21/whose-art-is-it

Ree Morton at Alexander and Bonin

(link)

Usually art's sentimentality comes as a latent or numb form, like Gonzalez-Torres whose catatonia in place of speech is its pathos, articulates it as loss, distance-from as its means. This a common theme in art; expressions come pre-packaged with their antidote and us all walking around quite well medicated by it and in the face of such desensitization Morton's explicit sentimentality is overbearing, with a theatricality almost comforting.  We need it now obviously, some comfort food, and like the character of Clinton singing elegies for losses, we create a collective fantasy, we desire revision, that someone will step in and just read us the good parts, a fantasy.