(January 5, 2015 at 2:26 pm)abaris Wrote: The more fudamental view would be, how well did the artist manage to reach an audience. In short, I don't give critics much credit. Sometimes their judgment is in accordance with mine, but sometimes it isn't. Which only proves that art is a totally subjective experience. It speaks to you or it doesn't.
But that doesn't mean I'm unable to appreciate things I personally dislike. For example, Arnold Schoenberg doesn't reach me, but I appreciate that he introduced something entirely new to music.
Art isn't just about reaching an audience, though. It's about craftsmanship and the ability the create something unique and creative. If we judged art simply on how well it reached an audience, Justin Beiber would be considered up there with Leonardo Da Vinci.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
