Whatever happened to beauty in art? Much of the article focuses on art whose only purpose seems to be so &quot;say something&quot;, 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?<p>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.<p>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.<p>What happened to that legacy?