From: Valuemetaphysics@aol.com
Date: Fri Feb 06 2004 - 17:18:10 GMT
Hello Platt,
I have been giving some thought to your recent posts. I can understand that
exceptional Quality will receive almost Universal appeal. Let us consider that
for a moment: The very best in art receives Universal recognition.
Why should there be such agreement? Why are the top three on your quoted list
so good?
This fascinates me.
However, as you suggest, 'What's more, there are degrees of excellence.' We
may disagree about those lower down on the list - you have expressed variations
between your values and those of the author of the list - but those top
three?
A thought comes to me Platt: 'Whenever exceptional excellence in art evolves,
does it evolve in isolation?' I am thinking about Michelangelo and Leonardo.
They knew each other, and there was a degree of friction between them, with
Leonardo expressing sculpture as an inferior art to that of painting.
Is this a recurring theme?
But to return to your central point regarding degrees of excellence. It is
there, i think i can agree. But what does this say about me? Do i have to be
able to become coherent with art in order to be able to value it? If so, why are
the very best so Universally recognised for their Quality? Very interesting...
All the best,
Mark
Hi Mark, All:
Mark wrote:
> Arte is excellence
> no matter what the field: An excellent physique, an excellence in social
> art, excellence in intellectual pursuits. It is the excellence -
Quality,
> as you rightly point out, which is THE most important thing to
understand.
Right on. What's more, there are degrees of excellence. Some artists are
better than others. For example, in his book "Human Accomplishment,"
Charles Murray ranks significant figures of excellence in Western Art (in
descending order) as follows, based on a statistical analysis of the
opinions of art experts:
Michelangelo
Picasso
Leonardo
Titian
Durer
Rembrandt
Giotto
Cezanne
Rubens
Caravaggio
Velazquez
Donatello
Van Eyck
Goya
Monet
Masaccio
Van Gogh
Gauguin
However you may rank these artists and others (I personally would lower
Picasso, raise Velazquez and add Vermeer), you cannot in good conscience
question the propriety of making such lists and finding agreement among
experts as to the excellence in accomplishment by certain individuals over
the rest of us.
That I as an artist strive to equal the genius of a Vermeer is never in
doubt; that I will ever do so is doubtful in the extreme.
Regards,
Platt
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