Tuna on White

In her scathing review of Neo Rauch at the Met, Roberta Smith states the following:

"Yet middlebrow remains a useful term, and an expanding category in today’s art world, a handy handle for art that is nonthreatening, accessible and earnest and that deals with time-honored humanistic themes.

"The phrase connotes an absence of, say, highbrow rigor and difficulty, or, equally, lowbrow flash and perversity. Jeff Koons is an example (not rare these days) of an artist who has had it both ways — he’s highbrow and lowbrow with such success that by now he probably can’t avoid being a bit middlebrow too. But there are also artists whose work is middlebrow to begin with. Bill Viola and Tim Hawkinson, for example."

I feel so insecure now.

From what I understand, middlebrow means, not very researched, but, not really irreverent either? Basically, a middlebrow person is a bit bland and aims for the "feel good." In my head, the person who calls you "arty" (or worse, "artsy fartsy") is middlebrow.

But how do you avoid middlebrow-ness? Her definition of middlebrow doesn't sound so bad. So, this is a lot of pressure.