There s no doubt that hierarchical systems of quality in art, perceived or provable, are undemocratic. Offensiveness can attach to such assertions as well, especially if made at the cost of excluding other artists or art movements. Once you qualify a thing as great, you automatically disqualify a contrasting range of other things from greatness. This form of discrimination is vital to true connoisseurship, but it s also unconscionable. While others aspire to be good electricians, good dentists or good bakers, artists yearn from an early age for sublimity.
Expectation is set so high, the majority fall short of it from the start.
If greatness is indeed a rosary, it can also be a choker of woe, a garrotte, around the neck of artists who crave it, and art critics who condone it. Bruce James Back to the main index page .