Modern art can be abstract and alluring, simple and complex, provocative and soothing, but as pointed out in chapter four of Why a Painting Is Like a Pizza: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Modern Art, some people love to hate it. Hate, as it seems, is not nearly a strong enough appellation to encapsulate the contempt experienced by ordinary people and art critics alike when faced with an original work of modern art. As in the case of Georges Braque’s 1907 oil on canvas Landscape at La Ciotat, critics like Marcel Nicolle lambasted the piece claiming that it was similar to the work of any ungifted child, proclaiming it “formless” and consequently not worthy of esteem. What Nicolle failed to understand, however, is Braque’s purposeful
