08 November 2009

questions of taste


Taste is personal to each person. There are multiple factors that affect each person’s personal taste, such as moral standards, concepts of beauty, as well as prejudices. Therefore, how is the Mona Lisa universally admired and recognized as a masterpiece then? Since taste is individual, how did we come to agreement? That is where judgment comes in. Something I’m skeptical, or confused about is the ability to separate judgment from personal taste. I feel as if all judgments are bound to be somewhat influenced by taste. Also, who is entitled to make such judgments? Personally, I would judge that the Sunday Evening Post covers by Rockwell were more interesting, and more aesthetically pleasing than the Mona Lisa. I’ve never understood why everyone likes the Mona Lisa, which obviously doesn’t discredit it in the least. Therefore, are there people that are entitled to make judgments on art, and therefore bring it up to masterpiece standards? It seems as if people capable of creating art would be more capable and better equipped to make such judgments. Also, we would assume that those people need to be also capable of separating taste from judgment.

So this blog has turned into a bunch of questions, which makes sense since I’m always confused on these concepts. I guess my main question is: Is there any masterpiece that is universally admired? Is it therefore only admired based on unbiased judgments since not everyone has the same taste?

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