What is the purpose of art?

I've been thinking about the show I watched on Norval Morriseau, and the book I'm reading by Thor Heyerdahl "Kon-Tiki," and yesterday I ordered a small reproduction of "The Thinker" by Rodin after seeing it as a set piece in a movie I watched.  I visited a Rodin exhibition in Washington DC many years ago while visiting my sister.

I remember feeling, in the presence of all these Rodin pieces, that this was artwork meant to transcend the artist's lifetime.  There was something timeless about it, something bigger than life.  If mankind vanished from the planet tomorrow, Rodin's artwork would be a worthwhile legacy to leave for the ages.

I feel the same way about Dali.  Fellini.  Michaelangelo.  The Eiffel Tower.  Golden Gate Bridge.  Thor Heyerdahl and Neil Armstrong.

Morriseau wouldn't make that list.  Neither would Rauschenberg or Pollack or Warhol or Banksy or Picasso or Monet.

Yogi Berra explains Jazz.

Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?

Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.

Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?

Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?

Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?

Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.

Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.