[TheForge] Art, doncha know....

[Rob Fertner]

Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap" 
Credited to Theodore Sturgeon a noted science fiction author.

The lesson behind this is that we should seek out the worthwhile 10% and
ignore the crap. 

I have a problem with the arbiters of art, many of which are not producers
of art (good or bad), but they seek to impose their definition of what is
art. They are the critics, patrons, or members of grant committees that seek
to promote only those artists that fit their worldview. Very influential,
yes. Monolithic, no.  Which helps some good art break through to the masses.
 
Art is a form of communication that transcends words. Art can be subtle in a
way that you have to study it for a while to get the message. If a
reasonably intelligent and educated adult can't figure out what the hell the
artist was trying to do without reading the title card, then I have to say
it ain't art.

Rob





I gotta disagree with your thesis.
It has been my impression, after a mere 50 years or so of travelling  
the world and looking carefully at art, craft, and industry, that  
there has always been crap, and there have always been diamonds  
scattered in amongst it.
I had a high school teacher, of the classics, as it happened, at an  
exclusive prep school, way back when in the 60's, who advanced a  
theory, certainly not his own, that 95% of everything was crap.
And there is a great Mark Twain quote, something to the effect of "I  
hate the damn Greeks- they already stole all the good ideas".

I would suggest that instead of living in an era of charlatans and  
cheapjack hustlers, we are actually living in an age of some of the  
greatest craftsmen ever. But since there are 8 billion or so of us,  
you have to look a bit harder to separate the wheat from the chaff...