Whatever happened to beauty in art? Much of the article focuses on art whose only purpose seems to be so "say something", to shock its viewers, to do something

Whatever happened to beauty in art? Much of the article focuses on art whose only purpose seems to be so "say something", to shock its viewers, to do something nobody else had ever thought of doing before. At which point in time did we lose the mother of all art - beauty? Aesthetics? Craftsmanship? Now do not get me wrong, of course artists must engage in a dialogue with the society in which they live, and of course art is a great way of expressing political and social opinions. But when the fundamental purpose of art - the creation of something beautiful - is lost, all that remains is politics masquerading as art. And no wonder nobody wants to see that. It is perfectly possible to produce art containing both: beautiful content and a strong message. Just take the Expressionist artists and poets of the Great War as an example. Wilfred Owen, Georg Heym, Otto Dix - they all produced incredibly strong anti-war art (poems and paintings) that still displayed a very high standard of artisan skill. There are many, many other examples, from many different points in history. What happened to that legacy?