Contemporary Art - Fallacies and Conceptions

I have been subscribing to the Utne Reader Art Blog for sometime now. A May 13, 2009 posting by Jeff Guntzel caught my attention: Eight Misperceptions About Contemporary Art. The posting was actually a synopsis of a more in-depth column from the same date by Paddy Johnson from her Art Fag City column in The L Magazine: Eight Fallacies About Contemporary Art.

Paddy Johnson's eight fallacies of contemporary art are as follows:

1. This work generated so much discussion it must be good.
2. Anything can be art.
3. Value is completely subjective.
4. Anyone could do that.
5. Elitism rules the art world.
6. Pioneering artists are "ahead of their time."
7. I don't know enough about art to talk about it.
8. Art professionals wear black.

It is worth reading Johnson's original column for her discussion regarding each of these eight points as well as the commentary that followed.