"All garden, no snake"

I was reading a free issue of Fine Art Connoisseur that I got at the US Artists expo. In it, the editor talks about how someone commented that his magazine was "All garden, no snake" - meaning all the art in it was decorative and viewer-pleasing, and none of it had any challenging or slightly bothersome aspects. I agree with the critic. The editor of F.A.C. responded to the critic by explaining how his entire next issue would be devoted to disturbing, violent, political art!
I am quite interested in this area about art being pleasing vs. disturbing. I always try to combine both pleasing and disturbing elements in my paintings to balance the painting out. In an issue of Juxtapoz I read a while ago, an artist talked about how it's better to have a painting that is neither entirely pleasing nor entirely disturbing.