A Judgement of Art [first edition]

Dust jacket notes: "Can art be evaluated with any degree of objectivity? For Frederic Taubes, the answer is clear: 'Value judgement...should be objective; it should be guided by concrete qualities that can be precisely classified.' In this erudite and profound book the author re-establishes the distinction between arbitrary personal preference and serious judgement which requires strict adherence to definable aesthetic criteria. Most often this distinction is more honored in the breach than in the observance. A recognized artist, Taubes is an internationally respected authority on the techniques of oil painting, as well as a noted aethetician and critic. In showing that the 'basic criteria of criticism lie in fundamental aesthetic principles,' the author clearly defines these principles and penetratingly illustrates how they are discernible in the works of the great masters and, alternatively, how they are violated in the works of second-raters and outright charlatans (whose reputations often have been unduly inflated by incompetent critics and well-placed partisans). Taubes is fiercely and justly independent of movements and fashions - fiercely because art matters to him and justly because he knows and sees more than most art commentators. And, unlike them, he seeks not to prethink our thoughts but to educate our taste...."