The problem is that representational art has become so commonplace that it’s boring (particularly to members of the art community). Also, camera technology has made realistic painting pretty much redundant. But as Agnes demonstrates in the last panel, the most important thing is that someone is willing to pay for it.
According to Steven Pinker this is by far the least violent we’ve ever been: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=history-and-the-decline-of-human-violence
The problem is that representational art has become so commonplace that it’s boring (particularly to members of the art community). Also, camera technology has made realistic painting pretty much redundant. But as Agnes demonstrates in the last panel, the most important thing is that someone is willing to pay for it.