Art

            In fashion, trends come and disappear quickly in an endless cycle of current styles. Art does have trends and styles, but its cycle is a little different from fashion's cycle of trends. Yet, writer George Will is afraid that art's cycle of new art trends will force his favored traditional art to lose all its popularity and disappear as the current art style, postmodernism, takes its place. He is so afraid of the decease of traditional art that he wastes no time in exclaiming that its competitor is undeserving of its popularity because it lacks art's two greatest qualities - elitism, exquisiteness - and lacks the ability to pass the test of time, all in an attempt to revive its popularity. However, I feel that all different styles of art are equal, and people who egotistically believe that their favorite art style is superior to others need to reconsider their reasoning and their confidence.
             Because George Will criticizes its not being objectively beautiful like traditional art and not passing his two personal criteria for respectable art, and he feels that it does not deserve any of its status. His standard for reputable art is that it must have two chief characteristics - elitist and aesthetically pleasing, and contemporary art has neither of these qualities. Will feels that art is not meant to be for people of the lower classes; it should be comprehensible only for the upper class. However, postmodernism "privileges" the lower classes with its universally accessible art, and Will condemns the lack of "high serious[ness]" in contemporary art. In addition, he believes that all superior art must focus on being artistically and visually outstanding rather than on forcing viewers to question society's function. This requirement of fine art stems from the obligation of connoisseurs to assume "that excellence in art can be defined and identified by scholarly judgments that are more than political acts or manifestations of cultural biases.