[remarkEon]

>Visual dominancy isn’t the only problem. The bigger problem is the dominance of our thought. Most Americans do not know what to do with abstraction in general. To be able to fully appreciate abstraction, you must be able to turn off your thought, or at least be able to put your thought into the background. This is not as easy as it might seem. In modern art museums, most people’s minds are dominated by thoughts like: “Even I could do this.” Or, “Why is this in a museum?” Or, “This looks like my bed sheet.” Etc.. They are unable to let the abstraction affect their emotions directly; their experience must be filtered through interpretations. In a way, this is a defense mechanism. It is a way to deal with fears like, “If I admit that I don’t understand this, I’ll look unsophisticated.” This type of fear fills their minds with noise, and they become unable to see, hear, or taste.

This paragraph in particular is oozing with holier-than-thou artistic elitism. These debates always end up being somewhat pointless, though. Art is always in the eye of the beholder and all that. Personally, I think the author's take is just wrong, not necessarily stupid - and I actually think the last point in this paragraph about how you have to pretend to like "modern" art in order to look sophisticated is really a pretty decent insight that's worth exploring more. We don't get any of that in the essay.

Obligatory: I played classical piano up until the 12th grade and moonlighted as the tenor sax in a jazz band in highschool. You can find me playing some Chopin when I'm in a bad mood, and blasting away on my Tenor when I want to annoy my neighbors.