Tell, me, does it follow that an audience that is trained in the medium of art, music, poetry etc. actually understands the art better than the non-trained eye, ear, or soul?If art is a language, surely the more versed in it you become the more discriminating your taste?
That is an interesting question!
When it comes to music it definitely adds layers of "kinds" of comprehension when you know music technically. For example, because of my autodidactic immersion in all things orchestral I now know "why" I adore certain music as far as what is actually happening to create the mood I respond to.
When it comes to art---it depends on several factors. I worked with a great many multi-faceted artists over the years and asked them many question. I found that seldom could they articulate what they were thinking. After a couple of years of listening to their crazy metaphor language I finally "got it". I started to see with different eyes what they were doing and it opened doors for me that had been closed before.
Any human being can appreciate the arts just because of the humanity. But, there are more and more onion layers to be felt and understood. To me, the greatest art always offers yet ONE MORE layer to be discovered.
I can listen to Rachmaninoff and never tire of it. Certain things by Bartok transport me to another dimension of feeling.
In art, anything by Sorolla (Bastida) is enough to make me change my underwear!
Poetry? I love Vachel Lindsey and Dylan Thomas or even old man Coleridge.
There are worlds as yet unknown the artists transport us to if only we open ourselves to them.
But, then again---75% of everything is pure horse shit.