To draw an analogy that may or may not be pertinent, consider first the question of who we think is qualified to make a judgement on the state of our health? Clearly the answer is not just any old member of the general public, we should want the judgement of a doctor. If judgement of merit in the arts is analogous to judgement in other fields, then the importance placed on the original question seems strange, for the answer would obviously be 'no'.
It is easy to mistake the above question with a different one 'could the public be qualified to judge the merits of art?', to this, I feel, the obvious answer is yes. Questions arise. What makes one qualified to judge the merits of art? How can one become so qualified? and so on... R On 5 October 2010 00:00, William Conger <[email protected]> wrote: > YES. But that does not mean any judgment is going to stick. Judgment is a > subjective valuing and the way it is articulated may actually become part > of the > artwork's larger context. Thus when we "see" the artwork we also recreate > the > judgments we know about and then fashion our own in that larger context. > In > this way everyone who looks at a well-known artwork is refashioning all > that he > or she knows about it. > > I'm not going to bother reading the article because I know it's about the > populist choice of the contest in Michigan, the one with the big money > prize. > My thought about that is that the artworks are/were made to illustrate a > populist taste and the one that captures the widest taste of the populist > voters > wins. That means it will be the work that is most generalized as > exemplifying > to most commonplace aesthetic values. As Melamid and Komar discovered > years ago > in their professionally run poll, the most loved artwork is realistic, > blueish > water/landscape, has some historical people, a tame animal or two, and at > least > one child. The winning work, I predict, will come close to matching that > template. > > Making real art is like the Odyssey, where Odysseus must survive many > trials > (making art) with the help of the gods before he can return home to destroy > his > lazy stealing enemies and recover his family and honors. It's not for > intellectual weaklings who merely serve up a populist stew of other > artists' > ideas. > WC > > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: joseph berg <[email protected]> > To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> > Sent: Mon, October 4, 2010 5:40:35 PM > Subject: "Is the public qualified to judge the merits of art?" > > > http://www.mlive.com/artprize/index.ssf/2010/09/where_does_the_artprize_conversation_stand_after_the_first_week_1.html
