Dianavan, I'm sure there is a place for the kind of personal art you refer to. Of course many artists approach their subject not only subjectively, but also as a forum to explore their own memory and subconscious. Or like Duchamp, to expose a collective conscience. These to me, are just as valid, though some or much of the concepts explored might be lost to the layman coming off the street to "have a look around".

I recently went to a museum with a friend who had had no art education in school, either practically or historically. I found his questions to be most perceptive in that they cut to whatever it was that he had personally connected with in each piece. He was perfectly able to make his own suppositions as well, again subjective rather than knowleable about the artist or the work. Some of his comments were quite thrilling, even in the cases when I pretty much knew he was not at all on the same track as the artist.

In the end, did it matter? He came in ignorance but with an open mind and eye, and in many ways probably took more away from that encounter than I did, with my pre-suppostions based on my knowledge. Was I in the end, more close-minded? I wonder..xx..e