"World class talent" is hard to define in art. Was Jackson Pollock's work as an art student clearly "world class"? What about color field paintings? Anna Kareni

"World class talent" is hard to define in art. Was Jackson Pollock's work as an art student clearly "world class"? What about color field paintings? Anna Karenina was dismissed on its release as trifling. Art, perhaps by definition, is subjective. An objective criteria might be to pursue art if you don't have to pay tuition. I knew someone who decided as a teenager that he wouldn't pursue music unless he didn't have to pay for it. This worked out mostly - his undergrad and graduate programs were full ride scholarships, he really was extraordinary. Except when he was auditioning for orchestras at the end, he spent almost a year unemployed and flying back and forth across the country on his own dime. He had to buy a separate seat for his instrument because he couldn't trust it being checked as baggage. He was incredibly good, but he told me that 80% of the people who auditioned were just as good, and past a certain level of ability, it was basically random who got picked. So this guy was perhaps "world class," but even at the end it was a dicey period where he was not sure he could be employed.