Art Criticism...

What makes a painting good? As an art Art History student I was asked this a lot, both in and out of the classroom. Both the curious-of-mind and philistines alike often wanted to know why people would pay millions for what, ahem, "looks like [their] child could have painted", which is a valid question (...almost, I doubt their child could actually paint a Pollock or de Kooning). In school we were given ample time and training to be able to answer such a question in a well-founded and intelligent way. Such justifications included cultural significance (my fave), the golden ratio & Fibonacci sequence, the rule of thirds, allegory and iconography...the list goes on.

I took the following photograph of John Baldessari's "What is Painting" at the MoMA this past July. I found it so perfectly eloquent.