"Art featuring things that are pretty to look at? What a banal and provincial idea"

A comment at this discussion-

Landscapes? Animal Pictures? Art featuring things that are pretty to look at? What a banal and provincial idea. Those motifs are entirely lacking in the proper transgressive attitude! Most damning of all, they are utterly bereft of the essential ironic detachment that is the hall mark of the true modern artist.

No, no no.
Art must reflect the edginess and sophistication of both its producers and its audience. Their willingness to transgress bourgeois social conventions, their willingness to defy the prudishness of conventional attitudes.

Animal pictures? Really Mary... why would any serious artist waste their time on such trivia when Art can be used for the promotion of challenging messages that cut against the grain of our complacent society... Messages that challenge our assumptions, stretch our thinking in new ways, take us out of our comfort zone and force us to reexamine our most cherished convictions and attitudes.
Messages such as

BUSH IS STUPID
WAR IS BAD
CAPITALISM IS EVIL

Now THATS really pushing the envelope.

Well said!