His art does seem sexist, and he does put on airs of exoticism, of direct access to ultimate truths. I shall suggest why modernists have made these choices in a moment. First, however, consider Pollock's oppositions, of Manet to Gauguin or of Gentilleschi to Titian. These contrasts too define an institution. They tell her audience whom it is safe to admire.
Real history is much more complex.
Manet, for example, was both challenging the presuppositions of art history and admiring the tradition greatly. The paradox of such an appropriation itself creates meaning, and it lies at the heart of Modernism. The ironies of tradition cannot be captured in her formula of reference, deference, and difference . Artists beg to differ out of their love. They refer in order to create the difference.