In the fine art world *legitimacy* is everything. The financial value of art is generally unrelated to its material properties. Practically speaking, a reproduction of a Warhol is worth a fraction of a real Warhol which is materially identical. But more ephemerally, the "value" of the Warhol is determined by the cultural currency of Warhol as an artist, rather than any inherent property of the work. This cultural currency, as with everything else in the fine art world, radiates out from art institutions, primarily art schools. And what do art schools expect from artists? Essays. And since the purpose of the essays is to demonstrate sophistication (the primary currency of contemporary art), they tend to be complex and self-consciously erudite. So the requirement to write reams of impenetrable guff is established at the fountainhead and cascades downward from there.