The notion that complicated/difficult arts are superior to simple/easy arts, however, is an erroneous one. A simple line can be more graceful than an intricate figure. A simple photograph can be more tasteful than a complicated painting. A pop song can be more beautiful than an opera song, although it is easier to sing. Very often, things are beautiful because they are simple. Margin brings comfort. Pause creates mood. Simplicity reflexes elegance. Silence often expresses more. Too much is as bad as not enough. Simple does not mean artistically inferior. Easy does not mean less skillful. On the contrary, it takes much sophistication to achieve simplicity and easiness. Those who make arts simple and easy, in my opinion, are better artists than those who make arts complicated and difficult.
This is so also because arts, especially popular arts, are for people. Highbrowism and art-for-art’s-sake are obsolete ideas. What’s the value of a pop song if it is beyond the reach of most people? What’s the value of a social dance if only few can dance it? Argentine tango is a social dance. It was a lowbrow dance created by gouchos, immigrant workers, taxi drivers and prostitutes. It is still a grass roots dance in Argentina today. Most people who dance tango are ordinary people. They love tango because it is an intimate, simple and elegant dance suited to the tastes and abilities of common people. What is annoying to them is the chauvinist attitude of those who consider themselves above the crowd and want to make tango a highbrow dance only elite can enjoy. I don’t think people will want that. Tango’s charm and tomorrow, I believe, will remain in its dancer-friendliness. In the end, populism overcomes highbrowism.
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