I make no judgement as to the validity or quality of the art, either classical or modern. I think art is much too personal a thing to speak of in quite that way

I make no judgement as to the validity or quality of the art, either classical or modern. I think art is much too personal a thing to speak of in quite that way. Only that the art world has decided to make the trade I speak of. Someone who can produce photo realism today, will not set the art world on fire. Neither will someone who takes 6 years to produce a single large anatomically precise sculpture after 25 years training. However if you can inject novelty (I recently read of a statue made of the artists own congealed blood, and another made of their ear wax) then you have the attention of the patron.