Good Taste Must Exist Because Good Artists Exist

Some people argue that there is no such thing as “good taste” in art. However, you can prove that it exists by trying to prove that it does not.

If you take the position that good taste does not exist then you must accept that there are no differences in the quality of judgment of art between people and therefore any art is good art. If any art can be “good art” then everything is equivalent and there must not be a difference between artists. Therefore there is no such thing as a “good artist” either.

From Is There Such a Thing as Good Taste? by Paul Graham.

See also:

• Taste, as it exists for designing products, is a refined sense of judgement and finding balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole.
• good taste is an intuition about power

Links to this note

• Good Taste Is an Intuition About Power

  Good taste is a closeness between what you perceive as power vs what is power, independent of who is observing it. This understanding of the difference between real and represented is an intuition of power.

• The Taste Gap

  What gets you into a creative field is having really good taste. When starting out, you’ll often be disappointed because what you create doesn’t match your taste. The gap is why people give up on creative endeavors.