High concept art should not be so easily rejected

Editor,

The column published on Wednesday by Devon Stevens, “Art classification is strictly subjective,” makes several good points, most importantly that art which has mass appeal is not without artistic merit.

Almost all of Italian opera is written for a mass audience, for example, and Mark Twain and Charles Dickens wrote great novels that appealed to a middle-class audience. Art which does not challenge the listener can, nevertheless, be very well done and enjoyable.

What I find disturbing is the spirit of anti-intellectualism that is found in the column. What does “high-class” art mean? If it is, as I assume, art that is more challenging to the appreciator, I find it sad that Stevens would experience such a violent reaction to a work that it takes more than a surface observation to understand.

I will quote the great jazz pianist Bill Evans, who responded as such when asked why so many young people attended his concerts:
“I think some young people want a deeper experience. Some people just want be hit over the head and, you know, if then they (get) hit hard enough maybe they’ll feel something. You know? But some people want to get inside of something and discover, maybe, more richness.

I think it will always be the same; they’re not going to be the great percentage of the people. A great percentage of the people don’t want a challenge. They want something to be done to them — they don’t want to participate. But there’ll always be, maybe as much as 15 percent of the population, who desire something more, and they’ll search it out — and maybe that’s where art is, I think.”

Participating in the act of art is crucial to a deeper understanding and ultimately deeper enjoyment. I find it confusing and frankly arrogant of Stevens to deny “high-class” art and Moby Dick of artistic merit.

Now this is not to say everything that is challenging to the appreciator has artistic merit. Obviously one must try to understand, and if it does not make sense even after repeated tries, one must try to make a coherent argument. Perhaps someone with more expertise on the subject will tell you what you should look for and you will find you understand and enjoy it after all. Or maybe not.

However, I will say Ke$ha may never be found to contain artistic merit. No matter how hard one looks.

Michael Shu
Daily Lobo reader