defining good art
My working definition of art is thus derived in part from both a moderate institutional theory that recognizes the important role that the museum space plays in determining meaning and mediating a history, tradition, and theory of what occurs in that space, and an ecological theory of art that affirms that in its making and viewing, art does someth
... See moreDaniel A. Siedell • God in the Gallery (Cultural Exegesis): A Christian Embrace of Modern Art
The best art makes your head spin with questions. Perhaps this is the fundamental distinction between pure art and pure design. While great art makes you wonder, great design makes things clear.
John Maeda • The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)
"We sell art short if we’re not critical of it. Being critical of art is a way of showing art respect. People are wrong to say: “It’s mean to write a negative review.” On the contrary, it’s a very intimate, even loving thing to do." - Jerry Saltz
If museums don’t let more of the world in soon, soon the world will let fewer museums in. - Jerry Saltz
I want writing to form communities, create a chorus, be a living text of compulsions. - Jerry Saltz
The artist is distinguished from all other responsible actors in society — the politicians, legislators, educators, and scientists — by the fact that he is his own test tube, his own laboratory, working according to very rigorous rules, however unstated these may be, and cannot allow any consideration to supersede his responsibility to reveal all t
... See moreMaria Popova • James Baldwin on the Creative Process and the Artist’s Responsibility to Society
Baudelaire believed that beauty had two parts. First, timelessness — like the form of a Grecian urn. The other part of beauty is something absolutely fleeting, like a fashionable dandy on the street. - Jerry Saltz
“The process of making art,” writes Rebecca Solnit, “is the process of becoming a person with agency, with independent thought, a producer of meaning rather than a consumer of meanings that may be at odds with your soul, your destiny, your humanity.”[2]