Taste

A personal preference or liking. And, the capacity to tell what is aesthetically excellent or appropriate. Sometimes, the sense of what is proper, or least likely to give offense.Quotes: "There is no disputing about taste." ("De gustibus non est disputandum.") Anonymous, Latin proverb. "The French have taste in all they do, / Which we are quite without; / For Nature, which to them gave go?t / To us gave only gout." Anonymous English poet. [Go?t is the French equivalent for taste.] "Absolute catholicity of taste is not without its dangers. It is only an auctioneer who should admire all schools of art." Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Pall Mall Gazette (London, February 8, 1886). "A man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage." George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. "Taste is the death of a painter." Walter Sickert (1860-1942), English painter. A Free House! "When people have taste, they may have faults, follies, they may err, they may be as human and honest as they please, but they will never cause a scandal!" Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950) American interior decorator. Quoted by Ruth Franklin in "A Life in Good Taste," The New Yorker, September 27, 2004, p. 142. "Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness." Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist. Quote (Anderson, S.C., March 24, 1957). The Russian emigrant conceptual artist team Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid are responsible for the projects they titled "The Most Wanted paintings" and "The Least Wanted paintings", reflect the artists' interpretation of a professional market research survey about aesthetic preferences and taste in painting. Intending to discover what a true "people's art" would look like, the artists, with the support of the Nation Institute, hired Marttila & Kiley, Inc. to conduct the first poll. In 1994, they began the process which resulted in America's Most Wanted and America's Least Wanted paintings, which were first exhibited under the title "People's Choice." See conceptual art. Also see aesthetics, bad art, banausic, brummagem, camp, chinoiserie, collection, deaccession, decoration, decorative, decorative arts, discrimination, Gem?tlichkeit, gewgaw, hooptedoodle, kitsch, ornament, and popular culture.