This fascinating article concludes that “context matters”, but I think there is a larger point to be made about education.
“Context” is really someone else’s valuation. If you hear a violinist in a concert hall, it is because someone decided he is worth booking. If you find a painting in the trash, it is because someone decided it is rubbish.
My supervisor would say that an essential part of education is developing taste, so that you need not rely on judgements of others and can decide the merits of a thing for yourself. If you have taste in music, you aren’t fooled by the context, and don’t walk obliviously past Joshua Bell busking in the subway.
Andy Warhol used to say something about how art was worth precisely what was paid for it. Don’t quite recall what. seem’s apropo, what with one thing and another.
I think there’s something in what your supervisor says.
I hope Warhol was making a statement about art’s worth being determined by what it means to people, as opposed to a statement about market forces.
If it’s just a popularity contest, then a guy could get a headache trying to figure out why Dan Brown is apparently the greatest artist ever.
Reminds me of this: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html (I am the mythical 3rd person they mention).
depends on how you define “greatest artist ever.” i don’t see warhol having a problem with that – what with his mass production and all. actually, i get a huge kick out of calling dan brown the greatest. oh, and i haven’t read it either. i almost want to, figuring that it will be a fairly pulpy sort of action yarn…
w/r/t warhol’s formulation, it is no doubt totally a statement about market forces; the invisible hand plays a much greater roll in our determination of taste in art than we would like to admit. consider: “a priceless work of art.” the very idea of cost and value is built right in. i can also see a bit of cynicism build in, with warhol bringing the all-too-lofty art of the elite down to a human level. art doesn’t derive its quality in some otherworldly way, instead, all art is ultimately handiwork, same as any craftsman makes, perhaps with only quality as the only difference.