I will submit two things first: (1) Jackson Pollock paintings are excellent, that you don’t like them just demonstrates you’re not in their audience; (2) the normal way for Burning Man to change someone’s life completely is through drug use.
Over the course of my art history degree, not once did anyone insist I had to like any work. I had to recognize its importance—either as inspiration others drew on or as an exemplar of some type—but never actually be attached to any of the work. I think this tendency to demand others like a work is unserious. But this is where I wonder about the work “like” is doing.
I’m not a fan of Bouguereau, for example, but I actually “like” his work in the sense that I often trot it out when I need an example of late academic painting. In fact, he might actually be my most-referenced artist and I admit that, while I wouldn’t hang any of it on my wall, I have a certain affinity for his work borne entirely of my distaste for it. I think you should consider this possibility: experts “like” a work in this sense—it is useful to them in explanation—but not in the “hang it on my wall” sense but others posture using the term but not really understanding what is meant by the expert.
Naturally, I think the posturers are fairly useless and have since my seminar days.
I will submit two things first: (1) Jackson Pollock paintings are excellent, that you don’t like them just demonstrates you’re not in their audience; (2) the normal way for Burning Man to change someone’s life completely is through drug use.
Over the course of my art history degree, not once did anyone insist I had to like any work. I had to recognize its importance—either as inspiration others drew on or as an exemplar of some type—but never actually be attached to any of the work. I think this tendency to demand others like a work is unserious. But this is where I wonder about the work “like” is doing.
I’m not a fan of Bouguereau, for example, but I actually “like” his work in the sense that I often trot it out when I need an example of late academic painting. In fact, he might actually be my most-referenced artist and I admit that, while I wouldn’t hang any of it on my wall, I have a certain affinity for his work borne entirely of my distaste for it. I think you should consider this possibility: experts “like” a work in this sense—it is useful to them in explanation—but not in the “hang it on my wall” sense but others posture using the term but not really understanding what is meant by the expert.
Naturally, I think the posturers are fairly useless and have since my seminar days.