I agree that making something big that succeeds only because it's big is lazy and cheating, but if it does in fact succeed then I sort of don't care. I find that with lots of things. For example there might be a type of music or whatever that I don't like and I could talk to someone on here or elsewhere and we could have a conversation about the weaknesses of that thing and what we have against it and I could totally mean it and find all the arguments and steps that took me to that point inarguable. But then I could hear a tune that's exactly of that type and find myself liking it.
For art I have acknowledged that to such an extent that I have almost two categories for art that I like.
The best stuff is when there is, say, a reason behind it (a concept if you will) that is a worthwhile concept, worth saying and which has been expressed in an original way, the artist has skillfully and thoughtfully found THE best way of showing it, his or her creation somehow gets that concept across in a truly brilliant and original way such that it is truly revealed to you in a way that shows its meaning to you better than ever before, better than you ever imagined it could be shown. Basically good art I guess.
And the other category is stuff I just like.
Anish Kapoor is actually (at times) a good example of this. I don't think of him as talented or anything. Basically he's a bit of a prick and intellectually he leaves me completely cold. But at the RA a few years back they had his show and one of his things was that big plasticine gun that fired globs of paint or plasticine or whatever it was and, when I saw it, I kinda smiled and I just - unexpectedly, unthinkingly, even unreasonably - liked it. Now art that i like in that way is clearly inferior to art of the former kind but I would be lying to myself and to you guys too if I didn't admit that sometimes there is shit like that that I just like.
I guess in my head I think of a kind of hierarchy of art which goes something like this
Art that is good and clever etc etc and I like it
Art that somehow I just like
Art that is good and clever and intellectually I like it but somehow over all I'm not that keen
Art that is neither clever or good and I also really don't like it.
Jeff Koons would be a great example of the last group.