According to Sarah Archino, another CAA panelist and an art - history graduate student at the City University of New York Graduate Center, «In order
for a
prank to really function as art, you have to have the
possibility of a lowbrow aspect in art, and if that really existed before the 20th century, it's been obscured by history.»
As part of his presentation, Lyons made a pitch
for academics and critics to consider the
possibility of what he called «
prank theory» — a theory that would enable scholars to study and put an official seal of approval on art history's great pranksters.