For there to be a gulf between high art and low, one must believe in it. During the eighties, the fate of Pollock's gesture fell into the hands of those who did not. Yet aesthetic beliefs are like styles. They fade only with reluctance, and hardly ever vanish entirely. Painters young in the 1950s are still elaborating de Kooning's example. De Kooning himself was reworking his own premises until just a few seasons ago. Lichtenstein continues to refine the clarities of Lichtensteinian Pop. Rauschenberg's flurry of images is unabated, as is the hum of Johns's quietude. All these artists—in fact, most artists—believe that there is a difference in kind between their images and those of advertising and entertainment. They still believe in the gulf between high and low art. Or one could say that they create this uncrossable gulf by believing not only that it does exist but that it should. Some who sustain this faith have recently put the legacy of Pollock to use.