Life: the way it is

Normally, only masterworks appear. And usually the writer spends his time demonstrating why serious painting is more complex and genuine, more sincere and more profound, then the kinds of pictures most people like when they're not pretending to be 'cultured'.

But it does not necessarily follow that one should always prefer what is more complex, genuine, sincere, and profound. Those of us who spend our lives concerned with the arts usually do not like what is commonplace or simple, and is natural. The true sports fan is bored by routine performance; he is fascinated by the exceptional. The professional mathematician would go mad had he nothing to do but routine applications of the calculus. The more we know of a thing the less concerned we are with its ordinary manifestations.

Similarly, when one knows very little about a subject one is apt to like what is most familiar and to be impressed with what seems difficult. As it happens, what is most familiar is quite often mediocre, and what a layman considers remarkable a professional would look upon as routine.


(all taken from the preface in this book, a must for anyone who likes to explore and learn new things: Art: the way it is )