Art critics suck...

[Werewolf]

Yeah, but if a guy has ONLY see the Spider-Man Mego and the Captain America Mego he might pick a favorite based on that - but if he sees ALL the Megos his opinion and his criteria might change too - so knowledge is still a factor.

People's tastes can and do often change over time. A person might like a Mego Spiderman at first and then later on a Mego Urko might become their favorite. But that still doesn't mean Urko is a "better" figure than Spiderman. Which is "better" is still subjective to personal taste.

My point before was that a guy can look at a couple of Megos for the first time without any prior knowledge and tell you which he likes best - that's fine, and I'm not dismissing his opinion - but I'm not going to keep visiting a website about Megos by that guy. I want to come HERE.

I think you are confusing history and criticism. I go to a museum to learn history and observe art for myself. I do not want or need it filtered through someone else. If I want to learn about a person's favorite toy or collection I go to their website. If I want to learn about Mego history I come to the museum. You could say, a museum is there to teach you history about a given subject. But not to interpret it for you and tell you what to think or how to feel about it.

[megoscott]

Sorry, this is a brilliant thread, but I have to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAPbZDit5_w

I'll do you one better...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-v-f2mT94Y

[rche]

what's wrong with three?

[sprytel]

Yeah, but if a guy has ONLY see the Spider-Man Mego and the Captain America Mego he might pick a favorite based on that - but if he sees ALL the Megos his opinion and his criteria might change too - so knowledge is still a factor.

You hit the nail on the head. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. But there is a qualitative difference between an INFORMED opinion and an uninformed opinion.

You probably put more stock in the medical opinions of your doctor than your mechanic. Conversely, you probably trust the mechanic's opinions on cars more than you do your doctor's. It is reasonable to value the opinions of folks who know a lot about the topic.

That is a critic's job. A good critic shares their expertise and helps analyze the work of art. They provide facts and insights, and bring analytic tools to bear on the piece. Whether or not you ultimately agree with their conclusions is almost irrelevant. It makes you think about things you may not have considered-- which in turn, helps you form your own, more informed opinion.

It baffles me how that could be a bad thing.

[Werewolf]

You probably put more stock in the medical opinions of your doctor than your mechanic. Conversely, you probably trust the mechanic's opinions on cars more than you do your doctor's. It is reasonable to value the opinions of folks who know a lot about the topic.

That is absolutely not comparable. A mechanic is trained to fix cars. having the knowledge to fix an engine is not the same as having an artistic opinion. A doctor is trained in medicine and not offering an subjective opinion that you are better or worse than anyone else. Knowing how to do heart surgery is not subjective. Liking one painting or Mego figure over another, is a matter of personal taste.

[Figuremod73]

Most people evaluate art based on these three things:

1. the esthetics - Does it look good? Did it take skill to make?

2. the concept - What does the piece say? How does the execution of the piece add to the meaning?

3. the monetary value - the higher a pieces financial value, the more people appreciate it.

Lets remember these rules. They are on the mark. It usually takes a great deal of knowledge of both art history and concepts to understand the second rule but still I think the galleries and critics can more often than not use it to there advantage.

Personally I appreciate actual skill. Kirby had oodles of it yet most critics bashed him. The same for Kinkade.

[Brazoo]

I think you are confusing history and criticism. I go to a museum to learn history and observe art for myself. I do not want or need it filtered through someone else. If I want to learn about a person's favorite toy or collection I go to their website. If I want to learn about Mego history I come to the museum. You could say, a museum is there to teach you history about a given subject. But not to interpret it for you and tell you what to think or how to feel about it.

I'm not confusing the two - discussing history is a big part of art criticism - I'm probably just not being clear.

Here's a sample from the Wikipedia entry on Art Criticism to help me out:

Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art.

Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty.

That's what you're talking about - then...

The variety of artistic movements has resulted in a division of art criticism into different disciplines, each using vastly different criteria for their judgements. The most common division in the field of criticism is between historical criticism and evaluation, a form of art history, and contemporary criticism of work by living artists.

That is what I'm talking about - so we keep discussing criticism as two different things.

[kingdom warrior]

Personally I appreciate actual skill. Kirby had oodles of it yet most critics bashed him. The same for Kinkade.

The critics who bashed Kirby were complete morons, and I'm sure they could never ever knockout 3 fully drawn pages a day.....or even put out the amount of work he did.

[Figuremod73]

One thing about Kirby though was he never thought of it as high art (if im wrong, please correct me), it was about "getting it done", so he could get to the next job.

Looking at a nice Thor page you could never see that. Its just one fantastic looking page after another.

[Brazoo]

I would EASILY consider Kirby a conceptual artist for a lot of his work.

Some of his stuff was just taking care of business though - which I find zero fault with. And I say this a guy who would probably rank Kirby as my favorite artist - if I was forced to rank my favorite artists.