What can be called art? And what cannot? Are there quality criteria applicable to works of art, similar to those you use for evaluating your blog or successful photo on Instagram? These are all questions that students of creative specialties have to reason and write essays to. In this article we will try to understand one of the most important issues of our time: Has quality been lost in contemporary art or not?

Is There a Quality Standard?
In the modernist era, every little known artist came up with his/her own standard for subsequent reproduction, as Clement Greenberg wrote about this. In the second half of the twentieth century, a variety of artistic practices arose. Now we often encounter conversations about formalism, about plastic, about some things, objects that an artist must present. At the same time, these objects must contain traces of the previous primary processing.

Contemporary art is a very complex system where there is no one quality system, but many systems. In relation to a work of modern art, very often quality criteria and ratings are also formed in large part by the work itself. Today, art is available for the latest achievements in science and technology, used in the economy.

The Impact of Modern Technology
Modern materials and technologies contribute to the creation of new types and genres of art (for example, a laser show); they also penetrate the usual forms of creativity, more or less peacefully getting along with tradition. An example of the use of new visual equipment as part of a normal creative task is David Hockney's “painting” on the iPad. Caused by scientific and technological progress, new phenomena in art do not yet mean a radical change in the artistic language and the rejection of accumulated experience. Unlike economics, tradition plays a significant role in art.

Thus, the expansion of the technical and technological basis of contemporary art means the fundamental possibility of choosing artistic means but does not in itself contain the need to change the criteria for evaluating a work of art.

Today, success stories in the economy form patterns and values focused on integration with science, modernization, innovation, and the development of innovative solutions. The quality criteria for the method and product of production, surprisingly easily superimposed on contemporary art. Innovation has become the most important measure of creativity - current art should surprise and even excite the viewer with the novelty and unexpectedness of approaches. Contemporary art is increasingly entering into direct interaction with science. In modern projects at the intersection of science and art, not only artists, musicians, sculptors, etc., but also scientists take part.

Quality Criteria
Firstly, quality is determined by the value of the work of art, i.e., the willingness of the buyer to pay for it a certain amount, corresponding, in his/her opinion, to the quality factor of a symbolic product. It is believed that the larger the amount used up for the sake of its acquisition, the higher the skill level of the artist who created it. Due to the fact that at present there is a manipulation of the tastes of potential buyers of the art market, this approach cannot be fully objective and indicates rather the popularity and recognition of the artist at the current time, rather than his/her level of professionalism.

Secondly, preference is given to the opinion of people directly related to the art industry: curators, museum workers, fund managers, critics, etc. who constantly deal with heterogeneous works of art and can evaluate the work of a particular artist based on comparative analysis of everything they saw and understanding of its individual characteristics. Their reviews are considered a quality mark. This approach is also influenced by a high proportion of subjectivity, as it is based on unverifiable values. At the same time, it is closer to the truth, as in its assessments it strives to move away from fashion trends and meet the general criteria of artistic excellence.

Absolute quality criteria in relation to the artistic sphere do not exist. It is possible that only time can be called such a criterion, which determines the contribution of each artist to the general process of art development.

So...
Contemporary art absorbs the qualitative criteria and models developed by the innovative economic culture of the era of the scientific and technological revolution. Quality was definitely not lost, but it has changed. The global changes in the material sphere of human society are responsible for the formation of a new direction, the so-called scientific art. At the same time, the emerging criteria of art are faced with a tradition that has maintained its viability for many centuries.