You'll generally find that artists who go on to seriously shock people have that as the last thing in their mind.If anything their main and excruciating worry is that of being understood and when the work is really that good it can take years if not decades for its complete assimilation in the more generally accepted idea of taste in a particular period of time.

Porkmarras. You listen to 'Boredom You're Breaking My Heart' yet?

No sorry.

Let's not forget Freud either.

Harrdy harr harr.

Bacon rules......I've had 20 or so of my favorite Bacon paintings as my screensaver for a few years now.

That'll do the trick.

the one on the right, really, REALLY looks like my art teacher from 8th grade.

it's just that: she's got her cycle, and even if he obviously wanted to, she didn't want to be fucked up her ass. hence the blood on his prick.

Art is something that I don't necessarily condemn when it seems to be seeking attention. That is, after all, an expression of what the artist truly wants. You can just follow your instincts and go for whatever you want, regardless of what it may convey to people - whether it is grotesque because you want to shock people and get attention, or whether it merely looks that way. It's still valid as art. Then there is the more formulaic or thought-out way of creating art, which is to abandon your instincts in order to convey a very specific and unmistakable expression. You can't really control how people except your art. You can only control how its completion satisfies your own creative appetite.

EDIT: I just reread that and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Oh well.