Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Emperor's Old Clothes 1.0

Can you tell if the person you're looking at--as far as you're concerned--is attractive? Can you determine if the food you're eating tastes good? Can you recognize whether you like the music to which you are listening? These answers seem obvious to me and, hopefully, to you too. If you can recognize something that strikes your senses favorably, can't you recognize whether a piece of art is good?

Just as noticing attractiveness, enjoying food, or enjoying music stirs the emotions positively, seeing good art makes you feel something positive too. It's not just a mere technical acknowledgment of skill. It's an emotional experience. You feel the impact. And again, I mean this reaction emotionally, not physically. That emotional reaction to good art is your qualification to judge art.

People sometimes say, "I don't know anything about art." So? That doesn't matter. Everybody is qualified to judge art. There are no prerequisites to be able to tell if something makes you feel good (or feel anything else for that matter). Sure, an art education--whatever that constitutes--may provide perspective in a way that can make you appreciate something to an extent that you otherwise wouldn't. It doesn't, however, confer the power to determine "goodness."

You don't need someone to tell you why, or if, something is good or bad. You don't need someone to tell you if something is "worthy." You are the sole decider, as it matters to you, as to the merits of a work of art.

Now you can see through the snake oil-type praises of for emperor's new clothes and, despite loud pompous convoluted proclamations to the contrary, you are fully equipped to call the emperor out as actually being naked.

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