Lyotard/Habermas, Paige Ehart

“Bourgeois art had two expectations at once from its audiences. On the one hand, the layman who enjoyed art should educate himself to become an expert. On the other hand, he should also behave as a competent consumer who uses art and relates aesthetic experiences to his own life problems. This second, and seemingly harmless, manner of experiencing art has lost its radical implications exactly because it had a confused relation to the attitude of being expert and professional”(106).

This really struck me because I can relate this notion to Marx and his ideas of commodification. Marx says that all things are in this world for the purpose of being bought and sold. I feel that nowadays art has taken this turn towards making a profit as opposed to the idea that people want to do it to simply express themselves or ideas of cultures around them. A long time ago art was a cherished possession and in a sense priceless because of the heart and soul that went into each piece of artwork. Artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc have works displayed in museums all over the world and they are observed and admired by millions of people every year. These pieces of art work have been appreciated over the years.

Art should be something that a person takes pride in and pours emotions into. And while art is subjective to each person, art should still be special to the person who is creating it. I agree that art should be something from the heart and it is a way to express yourself but one should also gain the knowledge and expertise of the style of art to create something masterful and inspiring. Bourgeois puts thinks about it in the best way possible. He wants to be the greatest artist that he can be while also maintaining the skills and thoughtfulness he always had. He doesn’t want to get too caught up in the consumer and the idea that art can be sold for profit. I feel that the term “art” has been taken advantage of and instead people are turning towards the mass production of art for the sole purpose of profit.