There’s a difference. With Lagomarsino, I never found anyone who found any meaning in what they saw, but with the Monet painting, everyone found meaning in it. It’s that initial response that matters. Monet was driven by his own meanings, but you don’t actually have to have him tell you anything to get your own meaning. With Lagomarsino, you do.

I do think activist artists aren’t as open to the viewers’ own interpretations as you think. They are open to a certain narrow range, and I suspect they haven’t actually ever been exposed to anything outside their own narrow expectations. In the case of Lagomarsino’s work, I’m not sure what one could possibly get out of it other than his interpretation, since it doesn’t seem to mean anything at all to anyone. That, at least, based on my reader’s response research. I think it should matter that I couldn’t find anyone who found any meaning in the work until they read what he said it meant.