Painting is dead,” people are always declaring. “The novel is dead.” “Photography is dead.” “History is dead.” Don’t be an art world undertaker! Nothing is dead! Don’t say, “I hate figurative painting.” You never know when your taste might prove you wrong.
Instead, when you come across a piece of art you don’t like, ask yourself: What would I like about this work were I the kind of person that liked it? Make a checklist of its qualities; try to spot at least two good qualities along with the bad. What is the work’s approach to color, structure, space, and style? Is it craftsmanlike or just craftsy? Is it simplistic? Muddy in a bad way? Are the edges mishandled? Are the artist’s ideas of line, subject, surface, and scale derivative? Is it too male? Too obviously funny? Telling you too much? If you find it “didactic,” define exactly what that means to you—and what a work of art should be instead. At the very least, this should give you a working list of your own artistic values. It’ll make your artist statement much sharper, too.