ART: The biggest influence

Visual art these days basically falls into three categories. Either its intention is to be aesthetically pleasing, be clever or amusing in some fashion, or somehow be controversial. Impressionism, arguably the most popular form of visual art, was very controversial in its beginning. Impressionism wasn’t contrived purely for the purpose of being controversial, it was an attempt to more accurately reflect the true colors and aesthetic beauty in nature, but controversial it was.

Some contemporary visual art is designed purely to be controversial, primarily for the purpose of getting attention (e.g. media attention). The more people are offended by it, the more effective it is. A large part of the community is playing into that very well. My advice is — for all forms of art, if you don’t like it, the most powerful thing you can do is just ignore it.

ARLON ROSENOFF

Coeur d’Alene