Which Is the Best Art?

When I was an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, I enrolled in an honors course with the title, "What is art?" I assume that my rationale for enrolling in the course was that it was open to honors students and that it fit into my schedule. Such was my undergraduate brain--and the brain of most undergraduates still today.

The professor was a philosopher, Dr. Charles Monson, who walked into class on the first day, put three pictures in front of the class, which looked something like these three paintings:

He then went around the class of about 12 students and asked each of us which painting we thought was best and why. I am still embarrassed to say that I knew not one smidgen about art, and that I , with the rest of the class, went with picture number one. It looked familiar to me, even if I had no idea who painted it, or in what period, or for what reason.

But when Professor Monson came to the last student, he chose the Picasso. I had not heard of Picasso. The fact that he was still alive is no excuse. I was stunned that this student would choose a painting so "silly" to my young mind. And in response to the professor's question, why he liked that painting, the student said that it was by Picasso, a painting of his model Dora Maar, and that it challenged the way we see. It did not give the viewer a historical  image or a realistic flower. It forced the viewer to stop and look harder.

At least that's the way I remember the student's answer.

I was almost as stupid by the time the class ended as I was when it began, but I have not forgotten Professor Monson's determination to wring an intelligent thought out of me. Thank you, Professor Monson.