9. On Taste

What is Taste?

"Taste is a love of beauty."––Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All of life is a dispute over taste and tasting."––Friedrich Nietzsche

Taste is someone's personal preference in food, fashion, music, beauty, art, literature, the weather, etc. Your taste determines what brings you pleasure and what doesn't, what you like and don't like.

Your taste changes as you grow. A young child might not like bitter things like beer or tomatoes, but may learn to like them as he grows up. Similarly, your taste in music and literature will change as you learn and understand more.

Your taste is tied to and develops with your identity. There are two questions you must answer when deciding whether you like something:

1. What is there to like about this thing? What's good about it?
2. What will people think of me, if they know I like or dislike this? How am I expected to react?

So, a teenager might like heavy metal as a way of expressing rebellion, anger, and dissatisfaction with life. He wears black clothes and wears his hair long, to look like a rock star. He wants to show his family, friends, and teachers, that he's not afraid to look different (although teens often flock in groups that dress identically) or frightening. In college, he might feel self-conscious, being the only one who dresses in that manner––it probably looks dated by now. So, he changes his style, his hair, his way of speaking, and starts listening to classical music to show his peers that he's sophisticated. Sometimes people get tired of the way they look, or they feel older and ready to change. Sometimes people like something because it makes them feel rich, like sports cars and caviar.

"Know why certain foods, such as truffles, are expensive? It's not because they taste best." – Marilyn vos Savant

People cultivate their taste as a way to describe themselves, even as a way of advertising, a kind of self-promotion. That's also why, according to sociologist Thorstein Veblen, people copy each other's taste. If your best friend likes Nirvana, then you'll give Nirvana a try. If your colleagues at work all have similar haircuts and cars, then you'll feel expected to have the same haircut and car. Everyone wants to fit in, and we use taste to do it.

What is Good Taste? Is there a standard definition?

Good question. It's debatable. The most famous quote regarding taste comes from ancient Latin,

"de gustibus non est disputandum,"

meaning it's impossible to argue over taste. It's true about food. One person might love pickles, while another hates them. Do pickles taste good? Who is right? There's no answer, because your opinion is based on your taste buds rather than logic.

But, with other things, like music, beauty, and art, there are arguments for a standard of good taste, based on aesthetics––qualities that appeal to an intelligent, emotionally sensitive person. Not everyone agrees. For instance, George Orwell said:

"In reality there is no kind of evidence or argument by which one can show that Shakespeare, or any other writer, is "good". Nor is there any way of definitely proving that––for instance––Warwick Beeping is "bad". Ultimately there is no test of literary merit except survival, which is itself an index to majority opinion."

But some people feel there are standards or qualities of good taste. The best explanation I've found was by the painter Stapleton Kearns (I'm paraphrasing here):

Blue Night, by Stapleton Kearns

"Taste is a quality that an artwork may possess. Taste is now terribly underestimated, but it was thought, until our grandfathers' time, to be essential and a characteristic of the finest art that set it above the merely pretty or mundane. It was one of the things that separated the fine arts from the baser products of the ordinary world of commerce and illustration.

Taste is the integrity of aesthetics, the highest form of artistic ethics, the high road. Taste is cool, measured, quiet, dignified, and refined. It doesn’t shock or scream at you. Taste lives in the color, the proportions, the design, and every aspect of a painting. It is often a restraint of color and design, and a moderation of subject matter away from the extreme, the cloying, and the vulgar. It is neither cute nor morbid. It is never obscene, or just the newest incarnation of a tired idea we have all seen before. It is neither retreaded nor spiky. It is never sentimental, sensational, or cloyingly sweet.

Taste treats the viewer with the greatest possible respect. Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill spoke with taste. Taste places quality above commerciality. It's opposite to what I call “heightened cheese content”. It doesn’t make the most sellable art, but there are always clients who want it. Taste values workmanship, but neither flaunts it nor imagines technique the purpose of art, but merely its means. I often see well made art that fails because it lacks taste.

Tasteful art is powerful, not flashy. It is seldom the brightest thing in a show or gallery, but it is often the thing that speaks to you every time you see it, rather than expending its force like a firecracker, the first instant it is seen. It makes art that can be enjoyed for a lifetime, that will always appeal to the viewer, even as their knowledge and discernment increase. It strives for the eternal and eschews the suddenly fashionable. Taste is what often separates the good from the great. The best artists almost always have it."

What is Bad/Poor Taste?

"It is impossible to have bad taste, but many people have none at all." ––Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

"Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste." ––Charles Bukowski

Bad taste is a sign of ignorance, and there are many ways to be ignorant. As Lichtenberg quipped above, those with bad taste are often called tasteless or "in poor taste". Bad taste is often the result of putting effort into a bad idea––a concept that is juvenile, or just silly. There's no deeper message. Such art is often called schlock, or fluff. Making a mosaic portrait of Michael Jackson out of prescription pills is an example of bad taste:

Pills by Jason Mecier

Note, the portrait above is skillfully made. Many tasteless works show incredible skill and quality of execution:

Warcraft related illustration by Ralph Horsley

They can even be quite charming:

Concept characters by Ben Balestreri

Bad taste often makes use of cheap, mass produced materials. Imagine using plastic knives and forks at a wedding reception, and the message that would send to guests. Humor is often in bad taste: dark humor, slapstick comedy, morbid humor. The joke can be really wonderful, expertly crafted, and hilarious––a skillful joke, and yet still in bad taste. You wouldn't want to say it in the wrong place, to the wrong people. Something done in poor taste is often insensitive and offensive. Some art and music is meant to revolt and upset the audience:

Anarchy in the UK, by the Sex Pistols, 1976

These artists enjoy upsetting people. Whether it's justified is up to you, and it depends on the situation. Comedian George Carlin once said, "If you're offended, then you deserve to be." In Russia, a group of feminist protestors sometimes stage impromptu "concerts" in a similar style to the Sex Pistols above, and often get arrested for it.

Another form of bad taste is showing off:

This girl plays three instruments very well, and she's proud of it, as she should be. The performance here could do really well in a talent competition. But, would you really want to hear this medley over and over? Here's an example of a visual artist showing off, finger painting each work in about 30 seconds:

If you have a bit more time, most cities have graffiti artists that can crank out a picture in about five minutes:

Then there's this guy who can paint his artwork upside down:

All these artists have their talents. I think D Westry's is the most impressive of the group. But, imagine if all these artists actually took the time to work on a picture for five hours instead of five minutes? Do the street artists even know how to? These artists are only impressive to watch them work. The resulting art isn't that great; if you didn't know how the paintings were made, would you give them much thought or credit?

Another form of bad taste is kitsch, which is anything considered overly sentimental or cute, often called corny or cheesy. Examples include kittens in a basket, or the ever popular dogs playing poker:

A Bold Bluff, by Cassius Coolidge, before 1909

Kitsch sentimentality can lend charm to an otherwise inferior artwork. Stapleton Kearns wrote, "Charm is the one quality that will redeem a painting bearing any other fault." Norman Rockwell once said, "If a picture wasn't going very well I'd put a puppy dog in it, always a mongrel, you know, never one of the full bred puppies. And then I'd put a bandage on its foot... I liked it when I did it, but now I'm sick of it."

Sick as a Dog, by Norman Rockwell, 1923

In addition to being too sweet, kitsch items are rarely hand made; they mostly come from a factory. Kitsch is often a form of lying––it's an obvious fake. It's a historical, wooden, African mask that isn't really wooden, historical, or made in Africa. It's a cheap ceramic knick-knack that's been painted up to look like porcelain, or a cheap plastic souvenir, made to seem ceramic. It's a tin candlestick, gilded to look like gold, a plaster copy of David meant to look like marble, but with skewed proportions, and none of the handmade feel of the original.

Yet another form of kitsch is called camp. This word is used to describe cheesy TV shows, mostly sitcoms from the 1960's to 80's. These shows are generally unrealistic comedies and action-adventures where life is always simple, the good guys always win, nothing really bad ever happens, and the characters are all over-acted to an extreme. Examples of campy shows include

The Brady Bunch

The Munsters

and Batman & Robin

Note, that in all these cases, kitsch, showing off, telling jokes, a lot of skill can be present, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying these art forms. You can respect them, even. But, not in the same way you would respect a Sargent portrait or a Shakespearean play.

Is Taste important? Does it matter?

"Sometimes it's more important to be human, than to have good taste." - Bertolt Brecht

It depends. If you want to be happy, or at least comfortable, you need the freedom to enjoy your own tastes. Imagine a world where everyone had to eat spinach and cauliflower at every meal, or where you couldn't listen to rock n' roll, or where library books are burned in piles. On the other hand, many writers, artists, and especially comedians see it as a sensible limit on their creativity.

"There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility." - Stephen Spielberg

Here’s an example. It’s normally in bad taste to make jokes about war and dying. But, wars are often unjust, and humor is a powerful method of making arguments. So, how does a master comedian do it? Here’s George Carlin again:

“During one of those patriotic orgies of self-congratulation that followed the first Gulf War, as General Schwarzkopf was bragging about dropping fire on women and babies, a protester interrupted his speech. The man who had killed a few hundred thousand civilians continued to speak. The protester was charged with disturbing the peace.”

George made a joke, but it’s not the kind where you laugh. It’s a kind that makes you think, that confronts the audience. He’s asking people if we should really accept these kinds of speeches in our society. After the 1^st Gulf War, Schwarzkopf got paid about $20,000 per speech to talk about the war, showing videos of “smart bombs” that supposedly only hit the proper targets. George Carlin’s joke is not polite nor tasteful, but it is human, and in this situation, to me, that’s more important.

What are some other kinds of taste?

Impeccable Taste - When someone's taste is so great that no one can criticize it. It usually refers to someone's fashion sense.

Varied Taste - When someone likes a variety of styles, usually musical.

Acquired Taste - when something is too strange, exotic, bitter, or complex to be enjoyable at first. But with time and exposure, you learn to like it. "Reality is an acquired taste." - Robert Fritz

Eclectic Taste - strange taste, when someone likes a variety of things that don't normally go together. Like when a pregnant woman gets a craving for pickles and ice cream. It's also used for fashion - mixing styles, both old and new in strange new ways.

Lavish Taste - When someone likes rich, expensive things. This is used to describe people with expensive houses, cars, and clothes.