For the last 40 years I have heard little more then unchallenged orgasmic praise for the so called masters of MODERN ART. I never read a critic in any newspaper even mildly criticizing any of the founding fathers of MODERN ART. Denigration is strictly reserved for those artists who practiced the evil tendencies which critics label kitsch, illustration and commercial art. They are not considered fine artists and are banned from our museums.
Indeed this is just now beginning to change a bit. In my student days you might be surprised to know, Art Nouveau and Art Deco were considered dead out evil. There were also lot of no-no artists who have since entered the classical repertoire to name a few: Beardsley, Mucha, Erté, Harnet, the Hudson River School (far better than any Impressionists in my opinion) and of course all those "commercial" illustrators who still invoke critical temper tantrums. In architecture Gaudí was the paragon of evil as everything had to be functional. Nobody in art schools even today knows the names of the great 19th century sculptors although their work is widely admired. Books on Victorian art and French Academic art were then nonexistent. Today they are beginning to appear in small quantities which indicates that there is a rebel taste out there for something other than bread and butter MODERNISM.
