More Fighting

Ah, but I have good news for ye.

Knowing where you land philosophically in the skirmish between Romanticism and Contemporary Art can help you determine the kind of work you want to make. If you're asking yourself, "What should I paint? Should I paint a boat?" then this might be good information for you.

Think of Art as a kind of box. The center of the box is circled "Traditional Values." This would include the most assiduous practitioners of Romantic era painting and its ideological themes (think: Wm. Adolphe Bougereau). The outer edges of the box contain the fringiest and wackiest elements of contemporary art (Schneeman's interior scroll performance?). These folks on the margins even raise eyebrows among the mainstream Contemporary set.  You are probably somewhere in the middle ring, floating at times toward the traditional, other times out to the margins. That's to be expected especially if you're a student, but some floating should be something to strive for as a professional too.

What happens when you don't fit either of these categories??
What if you're not a contemporary artist per se, with all of the edginess appurtenant to that label, but you can't see immersing yourself in fantasy wholeheartedly? Perhaps the idea of the sentimentality of the genre really turns you off.

Well, there is a third place to be....