The Artist’s Job
It isn't the responsibility of the audience to come with an understanding of what the artist is trying to do or to have foreknowledge of the artist's perspective before experiencing a work. It is rather the artist's job to draw the audience into the experience, and thereby encourage them to want greater understanding. In other words, it isn't "I know what I like." Or even "I like what I know." It's "I want to know more about what I like."
Who Does Art Belong Too?
Culture is for anyone who happens on it. Art belongs to those it happens to. I can't appropriate something I've experienced, something I've touched, tasted, smelled, or heard. It is already mine. Artists cannot plagiarize ideas, only the expression of those ideas. Every thought I take into my consciousness is part of me. The real trick would be trying to eliminate it from my expressive output.
I suppose what bothers so many people is when “artists” cynically lift images or even styles, whole cloth, from others and pass them off as their own and/or make money from them. But a bell can’t be un-rung. The best I can do is be true to myself, which includes everything I have experienced.