tastes like chicken.

Hume's article, though incredibly difficult for me to pay attention to, raised some interesting questions concerning taste. Anyone can criticize art, but it takes someone who knows about the background of the piece or the context in which it was produced or received to really speak intelligently about its merits or flaws. Hume attributes good taste to a critic who has "strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice." I think the word taste implies an innate sense or ability to judge something well (though well can be a relative term). I don't think you can learn taste, though you may be able to learn technique or composition or any other criteria for analyzing art. Hume seems to somewhat agree with me here. To him, a critic must practice and have a breadth of experience with artwork, as well as understanding the context of the piece and eliminating prejudice, but all of this hinges on the critic having a good sense and a delicate sentiment, that is, an ability to pick up subtleties and incorporate them into the whole. I think that Hume provides a well-defined criteria for a good critic, but does not really establish a standard of taste. In fact he comments on the variety of subjects and the predispositions of people to appreciate some more than others. "Taste" as I define it incorporates these predispositions, as you would say that someone has a certain taste in art or music, but he seems to define it as an ability to look past them to appreciate art on another level, something that I would call knowledge or understanding.

As for the monkey and the clown guy, my personal tastes make me think that the monkey is the better of the two, though I would not hang either in my house. I like the monkey more because it looks more realistic, which is my personal preference in art, and the other guy is a little creepy. Also, monkeys are funny and I'm not a huge fan of clowns. I would imagine that both pieces are making some sort of statement, but I don't base my choice on this. To me, taste is a sense of what you find beautiful, which I don't associate with an underlying message. I view a work of art first on whether or not I find it beautiful, and second on what it says to me.

Erik


Alcoholism is a disease, but it’s like the only disease that you can get yelled at for having. “DAMMIT, OTTO, YOU’RE AN ALCOHOLIC.” “DAMMIT, OTTO, YOU HAVE LUPUS.” One of those two doesn’t sound right.
-Mitch Hedberg