Representational art was supplanted by photography.
You could no longer get a paying gig doing portraiture.
'Fine' art with abstracts, impressionists, cubists etc. are a separate matter in which niches exist because of the community of individuals who are willing to stroke one another with, in my view, empty expressions of exceptional worth. It works because nobody in the community breaks rank and nobody outside of the community is considered to have a valid opinion. It is supported by a population of wealthy patrons and speculative hangers on who are able to monetize the collective fantasy. Rich people can get richer by appreciation of fine art, but only if other rich people go along and bid up the price.
Commercial art is more of a craft which, in my humble opinion, is more worthy because of the talent, skill, training and practice involved.
Avant garde music shares some of the same attributes (emerging after a technological sea change,) though there isn't much of a secondary market.
Classical musicianship was destroyed by mechanical recording. You don't have be a king and hire a quintet to have dinner music. The musicians released needed a gig and some of them found one by telling each other they have something new and special, like 5 minutes of silence. It is a small niche and dying. Pop music succeeds on its own because there are still people (sort of) willing to pay for it. The ease of pirating music has squeezed this niche until there is room for only a very few members. It too may die off. I hope not because I do enjoy listening to something new and I have absolutely no musical talent so I can only be a consumer. With luck, there will always be some who can play and do so mostly for their own satisfaction, as bittorrent and distain for intellectual property rights has eliminated their paying job.
You could no longer get a paying gig doing portraiture.
'Fine' art with abstracts, impressionists, cubists etc. are a separate matter in which niches exist because of the community of individuals who are willing to stroke one another with, in my view, empty expressions of exceptional worth. It works because nobody in the community breaks rank and nobody outside of the community is considered to have a valid opinion. It is supported by a population of wealthy patrons and speculative hangers on who are able to monetize the collective fantasy. Rich people can get richer by appreciation of fine art, but only if other rich people go along and bid up the price.
Commercial art is more of a craft which, in my humble opinion, is more worthy because of the talent, skill, training and practice involved.
Avant garde music shares some of the same attributes (emerging after a technological sea change,) though there isn't much of a secondary market.
Classical musicianship was destroyed by mechanical recording. You don't have be a king and hire a quintet to have dinner music. The musicians released needed a gig and some of them found one by telling each other they have something new and special, like 5 minutes of silence. It is a small niche and dying. Pop music succeeds on its own because there are still people (sort of) willing to pay for it. The ease of pirating music has squeezed this niche until there is room for only a very few members. It too may die off. I hope not because I do enjoy listening to something new and I have absolutely no musical talent so I can only be a consumer. With luck, there will always be some who can play and do so mostly for their own satisfaction, as bittorrent and distain for intellectual property rights has eliminated their paying job.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat? 
