In 1937, Nazi fighter pilots bombed Guernica, a Basque town in northern Spain, murdering and maiming 3,000 people.

Years later, "a Gestapo officer holds a reproduction of Guernica and asks Picasso, 'You did that, didn't you?' Picasso replies, 'No, you did'."

Pablo Picasso. Oil on canvas. 137.4 in × 305.5 in. Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain.

This is why I don't get works and pieces that alienate the viewer or the audience or the listener. Do artists really just create for themselves?

A page from the book When Art Really Works given to me by a good friend.

Art is not produced solely for intellectuals ...

Subjectivity will - and indeed must - always play a role in the appreciation of art. 'Well, I don't know about art, but I know what I like' is a remark that is often heard at galleries and museums, but it is as valid as the high-faulting claims by professional art critics in the newspapers.

"Punctured" (2013) by Roen Capuli, resin. One of my favorite works the past year.

Everyone can appreciate art--whether they feel 'qualified' to do so or not. Equally, everyone can feel a sense of awe when standing before a great work of art: we can recognize that there is something magnificent about a certain work, and that feeling is universal because that is art's job.

— Andy Pankhurst and Lucinda Hawksley