Letter to ARC

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Letter to ARC

From

Published before 2005


A splendid site, to be sure. The principal purpose of all art is the creation of BEAUTY; as long as we are flexible in our understanding of what beauty, that most nebulous of concepts, is. Pray do not throw away all abstract or expressionist art; 99.9% of it is admittedly absolute trash, but one does find the occasional .01% that isn't, like a Zen rock garden. Beauty must always be the criterion: if it's beautiful, it's good. If it isn't, it's bad. Simplistic, yes. But how else can we judge any creative endeavor? Anyhow, I love your stuff. Keep it going.

[Ed: We agree: .01% is just about right as the percentage of abstract expressionist painting that is not absolute trash.]