Thank heaven - a place to start...

So, wonder if anyone actually wants art in the first place? An encouraging blip appeared in the New York Times the other day. In a Q&A section on interior decorating, Stephen Treffinger offered some (rather weak) suggestions about what to hang on the walls of one's first home. Personally, I lave articles like this. They remind me that we're not making stuff to fill endless rows of shelves like the authors of novels or essays, but things that compete for space and attention in social settings. Perhaps too often, we in academe value art for its commentary or historical value at the expense of its potential place in the fabric of daily life (a funny sidebar on this can be seen in the British press, where a recent list of "greatest paintings" has columnists all a-twitter about how one can "rank" art). Now, more than ever, art has the chance to assume a valuable place getting around mass communication and into our ordinary lives. Perhaps we should think about whether there is "starter art" and where our own products stand in relation to such a thing.