Art and the Measure of Beauty

Recently, three of my children began taking art classes. Their teacher’s comments about there being no such thing as good or bad art reminded me of this thought from Denis De Rougemont:

The Devil is the father of false art, of all those works which are ‘neither good not bad,’ because the act of which they were born suppresses the very measure of beauty. There are no errors of taste possible where taste no longer exists, as there is no possible crime where no Law exists.

~ The Devil’s Share (New York, NY: Meridian Books, 1956), 40-41.