If Everything Is Art, Then Nothing Is Art

Three Musicians by Pablo Picasso

Since World War I art lovers have grown accustomed to viewing what is called modern art. These works fill our museums, our schools, our magazines, even jump out of our television sets. Our modern artists, beginning with Matisse and Picasso and continuing through Pollock to the present have pressured us to deny the evidence of our own senses.

We have been pressured into believing that these modernists are the most brilliant artists in all history because they weren't telling us lies like traditional painters - they were telling us the truth. They do not paint scenes rooted in reality or the imagination. They tell it like it is. They give us something that is not banal, silly, or inane. Or even beautiful. What is this great truth, you ask?

Incredible as it may seem, they have proved that the canvas is flat -- flat and thin -- and lacking in depth.

Look at the above painting by Picasso. It is arguably his most famous and most reproduced. It is supposed to elicit an emotion by the viewer, but does it? Frankly, it leaves most art lovers cold. Where is the reality, the beauty? Where is the depth of field, the perspective? It simply does not exist. He created a work in which the forms and shaped do not align or create any cohesive form. In fact, Picasso rejected all prior artistic standards. At best, it is a Rorschach inkblot. You have to be taught to love Picasso because no one would do so otherwise.

People don't have to be taught to love Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Chopin, Beethoven, or even Tom Sawyer.

The point is, when everything can be considered art, then nothing is art.

Just paint it!