Varying Art Assessment Standards in an Era Where “Anything Goes”

Text: Seyhr Qayum

Scholars, critics, your regular run-of-the-mill Average Joe – everybody, has at one point or another asked the incredibly profound and simultaneously incredibly futile question: “What is Art?” Countless articles have been published proclaiming art to be the visual representation of deep, intellectual thought. Some say it’s something – anything, which elicits an emotional response from the viewer. Many ramble tirelessly about how it’s all encompassing and is entirely subjective; what could seem like the consequence of a knocked over tub of paint on some canvas that conveniently happened to be lying beside the tub, for some people, could prompt others to empty out their bank accounts. By virtue of the fact that “art” has an even vaguer globally accepted, dictionary definition than it did say five hundred years ago, it is impossible to satisfactorily,universally answer this question. I personally believe that there is indeed, no right or wrong, no good or bad – to me, art is whatever induces one to stop, look at something, really look at it, and think “wow.”