Jacoby, On Art

I almost thought I'd had enough of the on, off situation but along comes Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby. If you're an art world insider, you probably won't agree with what he has to say. But you would be served to listen. Because Jacoby represents a large group of people, i.e. people who think art should be about more than setting up a light on a timer.

An excerpt from the piece:

Either you are sophisticated or cynical enough to gush over the emperor's wonderfully postmodern and transgressive new duds, or you are one of those reactionary rubes who get all hung up on the fact that the emperor actually happens to be naked. If talent and skill aren't required to produce a work of art, if a striving for truth or excellence or beauty has nothing to do with artistic greatness, if craftsmanship and effort matter less than attitude and gimmickry - in short, if there are no standards, then why not fawn over an "artist" who "works with rubbish?" Why not bestow a prize named for J.M.W. Turner - the greatest landscape painter in English history - on a chucklehead who crumples sheets of paper and films people vomiting?

Martin Creed won the Turner Prize in 2001 for his installation. (photos by ESSDRAS M. SUAREZ/GLOBE STAFF)