For a score of centuries, artists enriched Western society with their works of astonishing beauty. Master after master, from Leonardo, to Rembrandt, to Bierstadt, produced works that inspired, uplifted, and deepened us. But something happened on the way to the 20th Century.

Beginning in the late 19th century, a group dubbed The Impressionists rebelled against the French Académie des Beaux Arts and its demand for classical standards. Whatever their intentions, the new modernists sowed the seeds of aesthetic relativism -- the 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' mentality.

Not only has the quality of art diminished, but also the subject matter has gone from the transcendent to the trashy. Where once artists applied their talents to scenes of substance and integrity from history, literature, religion, mythology, etc., many of today's artists merely use their art to make statements, often for nothing more than shock value.

It is not only artists who are at fault; it is equally the fault of the so-called art community: the museum heads, gallery owners, and the critics who encourage and financially enable the production of this rubbish.