And I believe Price’s Law applies here: the square root of the number of contributors make 50% of the contributions to the field. If this is true, then these extraordinary artists also need the lions share of the patronage! And figuring out who those artists are is impossible without connoisseurship, and a community of superfans who are hell bent on making sure these artists are the real deal. So my definition of a real renaissance in the arts is when you can find a small handful of these “overachieving” artists who are carrying half of the entire field on their backs.
Discussion
The ideas above come from Jordan Peterson, but I’m actually seeing it play out in real time with living artists as I study them or collaborate with them: https://youtu.be/KxGPe1jD-qY?t=882