Chinese jade, arts, antiques, crafts: modern art

The stupidest thing I have heard, is that the piece is not antique, therefore it's "just a decoration". Well I really wonder what they think this 100 year old jade carving is if not a decoration. A supercomputer?

I understand the premium that is placed on a well preserved antique, but to denigrate a rare and beautiful piece of nature, like jade, transformed meticulously and delicately over the course of hundreds of hours of labor by a master craftsman as "just a decoration" is just insulting. And it truly shows their view of Chinese art and culture as some sort of exotic tchotchke, where only the antique is valuable because it came from some backwards exotic old world.

The modern art world is all about being Avant-garde. It's either about shocking people, or intensely underwhelming people. It's about promoting a message, or having no message and letting all sorts of "art experts" make up a good story. It's about taking the essence of those smug a-holes you meet in San Francisco, LA, or NY, condensing it, and then creating something tangible.

I'm just going to throw this out there--modern art is not about art, it's about the spectacle. Sorry, but I'm not moved by a painting of a Campbell's soup can. And I'm not going to value a painting more because it was half shredded. Modern art is a cult of the narcissistic personality. People are famous for their antics (Banksy), their political views (Ai Wei Wei), or just making something so ridiculous and being so narcissistic that you have the balls to tell others it's profound and awesome (Picasso). Furthermore, it's fueled by idiots without a spine who just go along with what others say and are so afraid to say, "Why am I looking at this sculpture of a urinal?". It's the The Emperor's New Clothes come to reality.