How Art Can Be Good

Paul Graham · 1 Dec 2006

The piece opens with

Because good art exists, good taste exists too: it is the ability to recognize good art.

Their wordsSince there's such a thing as good art, there's also such a thing as good taste, which is the ability to recognize it.

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Paul Graham did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Because good art exists, good taste exists too: it is the ability to recognize good art.

Their wordsSince there's such a thing as good art, there's also such a thing as good taste, which is the ability to recognize it.
Our reading
What gets into art shows is decided mostly by market price, which for recent art is set largely by successful businessmen and their wives.

Their wordsThat's because the test for what gets included in shows is basically the market price, and for recent art that is largely determined by successful businessmen and their wives.

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