what’s good -- the side by side test

How do we know anything about anything? A team of scientists conclude the human mind‘s basic function is comparison and that’s how we think, how we see the world, how we navigate our lives. Most folks know pretty quickly what’s the best quality for the most reasonable price but they’ll need at least two examples. We tumble through life picking up points of reference -- an exceptional sunset, the correctly fried egg, an epic performance, and whatever comes after rates on that scale. It seems almost mechanical and some say it is. 

For art the question about 'how good' is usually avoided altogether these days, and other ancillary facts and statistics are cited, usually a long list of past affirmations. Consensus replaces looking altogether. The new director of the local university’s art museum landed an artist who’s shown previously at ‘MoMA’ and the ‘Hirshhorn’, “and so deserves a giant show” without mentioning medium, content, or making any reference to the art at all. It’s just not relevant in the scheme of things. Straight up comparison, that most fundamental process for determining quality, has been largely ignored in favor of press clippings and proclamations.

Read once about a nervous Picasso before a national exhibit one on one with another famous spanish painter, Goya. Different styles from different eras, it didn’t matter -- Picasso was afraid of being blown off the wall. He reportedly came out of the exhibit much relieved because he thought his stuff held up. For Picasso, comparison side by side was the ultimate test of any art, and it doesn’t take a scholar to know the difference. Average people making day to day comparisons will eventually come to support the best BBQ in the district, are going to be drawn toward the most well designed automobile, and will be able to tell which piece of art is more compelling when looking at two pieces side by side. It’s all based on the way we think, what we know, and how we make decisions.

Ideally an art museum in the area would provide a context for what contemporary artists are doing, exhibiting objects that have endured unchanged for centuries, each recording the prevailing mentality of their age. Although representing many different forms, together they provide a standard of accomplishment for gaging the work of artists living in the surrounding area. Big cities do it best. Here, if we were lucky, a crew of profit-driven capitalists would import a lot of contemporary art just to sell hotel rooms, and anyone curious could go look. In the end ‘it’s all the same’ -- that’s what Picasso said. Just looking at art engages the machinery and leads down the path to liking some art more than other art.