Whatever the Artist Does

“The purpose is not to give the audience pleasure, but to assault them with a ‘decentering’ experience. Art becomes defined as ‘whatever an artist does.’ As a result, the work of art becomes less important than the artist, a view which encourages posturing, egotism, and self-indulgence instead of artistic excellence. These new assumptions about art have been catastrophic for true creativity.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 21]