XV. What problems are raised in the article? What is your personal attitude towards them? the question of good vs. Bad art

The question was recently posed whether people should feel guilty for calling a piece of artwork "bad", as if the notion of passing judgement on such an intangible and subjective item was not only impossible but wrong. Being the opinionated artist that I am, I could not resist a little commentary.

People have been defining art as bad and good since the first hand outline was sketched on a cave wall. In the very early days, when art was really about representation, rather than expression, it was a little easier to say, "5 fingers, yes, that's right" or "arms don't bend that way, do they?" However, art is now an open field. Common opinions of bad and good often are directed by the fashions of the times, but art is now clearly a subjective thing. If the hand has 7 fingers, it can now mean whatever you want it to mean (what historians sometimes forget, however, is that often the artist just felt like doing seven damn fingers).

Within the world of art, there is a troubling trend. Many people have become scared to say, "I think that is good/bad." Viewers go into galleries and say, "I don't know what I like. Please tell me what is Good." I ask myself how it is possible for people to abdicate their own opinions. These viewers are afraid of being wrong, and thus looking foolish. Some are intimidated by the over-intellectualization that has gone on among critics, to the point where the real art is the b.s. in reviewers' essays instead of the particular piece they are reviewing. Other viewers are influenced by the pseudo-politically-correct "open-minded­ness" attitude that sca­res them from passing judgement. Still others are extremely uncomfortable with the uncertainty in art. These people like their world clearly defined, so they prop up gurus to prioritize and categorize for them.

The truth is that good merely means "I like" and bad means "I dislike". The art world requires the concepts of subjective good and bad, because that is what drives the desire for improvement and the hard work that goes with it. Without judgements, we would be surrounded by mediocrity. As I write this, I happen to be in my studio surrounded by quite a few pieces that I would loudly define as bad. Bad! Bad! Bad! That is what over-painting and the term "first draft" were invented for. I never mind when a critic praises or disparages artwork, but I would like more of the world to have the confidence to rate the commentary as just another opinion, rather than word-from-on-high.

We need to be comfortable with the terms good and bad, and also understand their meanings and limitations. We need to be accepting of others' opinions, and be willing to listen and possibly change their own. Opinions, shared ideas, and discourse drive progress and keep great art flowing forth.

(Robert Henri in The Art Spirit, 1923)

"The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art. He needs no one to give him an art education; he is already qualified. He needs but to see pictures with his active mind, look into them for the things that belong to him, and he will find soon enough in himself an art connoisseur and an art lover of the first order."

*Henri (Giff Constable, January 26, 2001)

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