I'm really glad this thread didn't die away! We spend so much time discussing the woes of the world, and little enough being able to celebrate what our species has created.

Wonderful discussions going on here!

I can't remember who said it (besides me) but in the past decade or so, I find myself thinking that "Art is what you can get away with convincing other people it is".

The young lions (pretty toothless in my own opinion) on the British Art scene, have me gritting my teach with regularity. I think it all started with the idea of "conceptual art" where the explanations became the real creative end of the piece. It's what these people can vocalize rather than what they produce that seems to be the point of the exercise.

For me, Art is whatever stops me in my tracks. It's what draws me in and opens my brain in a non-intellectual, rather viseral way. I have stood in front of "The Green Violinist" by Marc Chagall and cried my eyes out. I've been enraptured in a way I can only describe as sexual by a woodcut by Durer. I've laughed out loud until a guard came over to shush me by the sheer force of the magic of Matisse.

The list is a long one, and my continuing "art education" is more about what I see than what I read. Museums are the closest thing I have to a Temple, and I worship often.

But 93 Million Dollars for one painting??? Here I am in a quandry. This particular painting is a fine one, but for me, no. That money would be better spent on saving our rainforests. Then again, I would despair at not having Museums full of such rarities as original Klees, Kandinskis, Miros, Rodins, Seurats,Cassats, Monets, Carevaggios, El Grecos,Lautrecs,....as well as the named and unnamed artists behind works from Egypt, Greece, Assyria, Japan, India...

These are representations of what we can do when we put down our swords and pick up the tools of creation, and each are indeed priceless.

Bottom line for me? (Sorry for being so long-winded but this is a passion) Better money spent on art than weapons. Better great art being in Public Museums where they can be absorbed by all, and better more threads at mudcat that let us rejoice in what our species is capable of at our best....xx...e