Authenticity is not important in Chinese art because the culture doesn't and never valued individuality as much as in the West. Some exceptions, of course.
Further, there are people who have been experts across the board. We could start with Rubens. Some contemporary artists have PhDs in art history. Now, there's a big push to offer PhDs in art practice in the US (some few programs exist here and quite a few in Europe). See James Elkin's new book, Artists with Phds. You have a bad habit of making summative generalizations about what is and isn't, what is and should be, what counts and what doesn't. When you stray into academic territory, as you often do, it's best to avoid big, declarative summations because you will almost always be wrong in some crucial way, as you are in your statement here. WC ----- Original Message ---- From: Chris Miller <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, December 1, 2009 1:50:38 PM Subject: Re: If I say a thing is beautiful, how can I convince you that certai n properties of that thing are in fact beautiful? >"Under the tenets of pragmatism, it holds that if a normal human ever could be deemed an expert, then they probably will be found as such by their peers in the long run, regardless of whether the human ever actually will become an expert. " I've just been reading the autobiography of Eric Hebborn, one of the notorious forgers whom Dutton mentioned. It was his job to fool the experts -- indeed, ,multiple teams of experts, so since he was so successful, he may be considered an expert in art expertise. And he says that three kinds of expertise are relevant to the visual arts: *scholarship *connoisseurship *craftsmanship Some "experts" may be great scholars -- others may also be connoisseurs - but none of them know how to draw or paint . Otherwise, he would not have been so successful at fooling them. In Chinese landscape and calligraphy, however, none of the renowned experts have not also been proficient artists, themselves. But then, curiously, the issue of authenticity was not nearly as important in China as it has been in Europe. And Euro-Centric person that I am --- I do hope that the European artworld will eventually adopt that attitude. (even if Dutton insists that it's contrary to the "art instinct") ____________________________________________________________ Water Heater Some like it hot. Click now for a reliable new water heater! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/c?cp=-IuzjW5_gONprnn5SkCmnwAAJz6c l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGIAAAAAA=
