“There is so much nonsense spoken and written about art today that the average man is, naturally, inclined to be shy of the whole subject, and suspicious of those who practise the Arts. He thinks, if this mass of contradiction and confusing jargon is the result of the love of Art, he had better do without Art altogether. There is no mystery about Art, but there is mystification without end, evolved by certain critics who love to pose as superior persons. Such writers put forward the theory that enjoyment of fine arts is reserved for a select and exclusive minority, meaning of course, themselves and their disciples. No greater error could be propounded than this, which is a comparatively modern fallacy and one which is so dangerous that if persisted, it must in time bring into contempt everything and everyone connected with Art”
From The World’s Greatest Paintings:Selected Masterpieces, published in 1934 edited by Professor T. Leman Hare. I came across the above quote when I was reading A Prison Diary:Heaven Volume 3 by Jeffrey Archer. In which he wrote “…something, in my opinion, is even more relevant today that it was in 1934″
I say “You kno dam rite!”