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Originally Posted by Valentino Radman
You nailed it.
The taste of public in general (and art public in particular) can hardly be lower, thanks primarily to modernists' "everything goes" philosophy. Standards of quality are virtually nonexistent today, due to the same reasons.
Some might think I am exaggerating, but look at the 15th century Florence. In those times you couldn't get away with literally anything like today. The patrons were educated, true connossieurs which were fluent in Latin and Greek. They expected the highest quality works that could stand comparision with the finest examples of the art of Antique - and artists lived up to their expectations. That's why rennaissance happened there and not somewhere else.
I strayed off a little... In situation in which the art scene is today, I do not believe things could improve, if artists continue to deliver bland, unexciting, artless pieces of painting (not just portraits, any painting).
One can not hope the general public will became sophisticated all of a sudden. The other parts of the equation - gallery owners and critics - had very rarely (if ever) contributed in improving the art scene.
My botom line would be - it is primarily up to the artists to raise the artistic standards of the contemporary art. Great artists of the past were great because they were not conforming to the lowest denominator.
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You can't imagine how worse the situation is here in Brazil. I blame the revolutionary "Week of Modern Art of 1922" as a cause of this long time disease. It was a happening where all the emergent artists who were doing something non-traditional could show their Art and prove that was the new way to go. As a consequence the meaning of Art in Brazil changed radically, and good painters of the past, like Almeida Junior, were totally forgotten. Then and still now what is "good Art" for most people is anything but academic or traditional.
Working for a change...
Ant