Thanks, I sincerely appreciate this comment. I think the prevalent opinion is that viewing art through aesthetic or formalist perspectives are "outdated" and that we've replaced them with a more refined, more evolved, deeper understanding of art.

I am mostly arguing that modern/contemporary art theory is just one alternative - it's not "above" more traditional views of art, and there isn't some linear progression from Kant to Rosalind Krauss.

I think the more modern view has dismissed beauty as some lower form of making and understanding art. As something superficial and entirely optional, perhaps even discouraged by some.

I'd prefer to synthesize the more traditional perspectives on aesthetics with some of the modern insights, rather than assuming newer theories must supersede older ones.