In the twentieth century, the visual arts
have embarked on major experimentation, from cubism to expressionism.
While tastes always vary, there are certainly some people who find
beautiful objects of each of the art movements of the first half of the
twentieth century. In the latter half of the twentieth century, though,
most works are so abstract or shocking that neither the critic nor the general
public uses the word "beautiful" to describe them: indeed, sometimes
late twentieth-century artists have, as one of their expressed goals, the
creation of a work that no one could find beautiful. Whatever these
artists are creating may be intellectually engaging at some level, but it is no
longer art.