Aphorisms for Artists by Walter Darby Bannard

Aphorism #48

There is nothing as worthless as bad art.

As Oscar Wilde said, art is quite useless. You can’t eat it, drive it, or live in it. Its uselessness, however, is what allows it to be a pure vehicle for human value. Great art has something we cherish very highly, but history tells us that very little of the huge quantity of art that gets made does what art is supposed to do.

Nevertheless, much of this detritus is eagerly bought for lots of money. The numbers tell the story.

We are a strange species.

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