The Twentieth- the Lost Century of Art

Souren Melikian, a rare cogent New York Times art critic, gave what I thought was a brilliant summation of the 'art' of the 20th century.

The last paragraph is especially telling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/arts/11iht-melikian11.html?scp=1&sq=severini&st=cse

The 20th-century visual arts paralleled the multiplicity of ideologies that reflected conflicting conceptions of society and man’s place in it. The rudderless world that exploded in self-destruction from 1914 to 1918 and 1939 to 1945 also tore itself apart in the images it conceived. It desperately tried everything and believed in nothing. The wild aimlessness goes on minus the craftsmanship