what is art

[rosiepots]

What is art?


There is no easy answer to this question – it’s like asking “what is life” or “what is thought” or “what is freedom.” Art means different things to different people, but the question can be examined in light of a few general statements. Art is personal expression. Communication. A burst of creativity, or political commentary. Art can be an observation, a suggestion. It can raise questions, or even attempt to answer a few. Art can provoke thoughts and reactions and intense emotions. It can provide beauty and stimulate thought. Art can make people smile and laugh; it can puzzle them or make them wistful, or bring a sense of calm to a chaotic day. Art can bring you to a dead standstill, with your mind racing or your heart pounding. Art can improve the objects all around us, from our cars and couches to medical equipment, or the computer you're looking at, and the information to be found on it. It can help people lead more positive, productive lives.

Art can please us, disturb us, educate and shock us. Art challenges us. Art can reflect our reality, or hint at how things could be. Art is most often visual storytelling; it articulates aspects of our culture – past, present and future – giving them shape and substance and meaning. Art can enhance your environment, give visual identity to your community. Art can shed light on the world, creating an original experience for each viewer.

Art appears in many guises, through drawing, sculpture, printmaking, video installation, lighting and camerawork on a movie set, textiles, photos, performance, a ceramic mug, words, jewellery, woodworking, animation, design. Digital culture has introduced new ways of delivering art, and computers have expanded art’s possibilities, spawning entire new art forms.
Carl Andre in 1969, stressed the importance of the single-minded search and interaction with other artists. He urged students to see everything, talk about it at length, think about it. When German artist Joseph Beuys collected his honorary degree in 1976, he was frank about the compulsion and sacrifice required for art, and the necessity of deep personal involvement. Art can explore spirituality, democracy, science; it can study a collective or individual triumph or crisis. Art is a learning and a teaching process, said Beuys. It’s not an elite activity reserved solely for experts – it’s a part of everyday life, and it’s human nature to be creative.

“Conditions for freedom were never so big as now,” Beuys told students. “People only have to observe this, to focus and use the senses to sharpen sensibility. They must develop the senses to become better eyes, better ears, to listen more intimately to the problems, deeper into the problems.”

Art can lead to respect, admiration and other great things, such as making a difference, Eric Fischl told graduating students in 2002. Art is noise and energy, making feelings visible and thoughts concrete, said Fischl, who began his successful career as a painting instructor.

“Your job is to make sense out of sensations; to make order where there is none, shine light into darkness, celebrate beauty, honour the powerful, respect the dead, idolize heroes, mourn the fallen, ennoble the downtrodden, nuance the obvious...continue to do what has already been done but make it new, make it fresh, compelling, moving and powerful. Your job is to keep art alive,” Fischl said.

An education in the arts can help us learn to look, evaluate, and make meaning. It teaches disciplines and processes, but also shares a foundation of knowledge and theory, gives insight into the experience of human existence. Art is a record of our culture. Future civilizations will know us because of the imprint we leave behind. Art is a visual document of our planet, our people, and our ideas at this particular point in the evolution of humanity.

Art is an adventure...
_________________

[Ross]

Its a funny one. I've become so angered by this question since asking it has completely shoved "what do we think of this painting?" out of the queue because its a duff issue. Everytime anything is shown anywhere theres someone saying "is this really art?!" and to be honest the whole issue is just something for people who aren't interested in the real thing to debate about imho. It just gets in the way, and who cares what 'art' is.
_________________
http://genuine-interest.blogspot.com/
Rants, raves and occasionally something worth reading

[PeterBrown]

I am happy with the Oxford Dictionary's simple 'umbrella' definition of art:

"the expression or application of creative skill & imagination , especially through
a visual medium such as painting or sculpture: (also) art = works produced in this way"

[rosiepots]

there are different perspectives on art matters, and an enjoyable way to broaden your knowledge, far more reaching than that of a dictionaries definition, also art can get you out of the 'box' and stretch your imagination which quite a few people fail to do.

[Gwenlyn Norton]

Art is so many things and so difficult to put into the totality of words. I am reading an excellent book by Thomas E. Wartenberg, 'The Nature of Art' an anthology. It is excellent. The table of contents hints at the depth of this topic:

Art as Imitation: Plato
Art as Cognition: Aristotle
Art as Representing Nature: Leo Battista Alberti
Art as Object of Taste: David Hume
Art as Communicable Pleasure: Immanuel Kant
Art as Revelation: Arthur Schopenhauer
Art as the Ideal: G. W. F. Hegel
Art as Redemption: Friedrich Nietzsche
Art as Communication of Feeling: Leo N. Tolstoy
Art as Sympton: Sigmund Freud
Art as Significant form: Clive Bell
Art as Expression: R. G. Collingwood
Art as Experience: John Dewey
Art as Truth: Martin Heidegger
Art as Auratic: Walter Benjamin
Art as Liberatory: Theodor Adorno
Art as Indefinable: Morris Weitz
Art as Exemplification: Nelson Goodman
Art as Theory: Arthur Danto
Art as Institution: George Dickie
Art as Aesthetic Production: Monroe C. Beardsley
Art as Text: Roland Barthes
Art as Fetish: Adrian Piper
Art as Deconstructable: Jacques Derrida
Art as Feminism: Hilde Hein
Art as Contextual: Dele Jegede
Art as Postcolonial: Kwama Anthony Appiah
Art as Virtual: Douglas Davis
_________________
Gwenlyn Norton - http://www.gwenlynsgallery.com/
.... seeing the world through a broken lens.

[rosiepots]

I shall look that book up , sounds good.

[Artyfolder]

Surely a better question is "What isn't Art?"

[PeterBrown]

PLEASE! Let's keep it simple! As Einstein said "I'm no Eistein so Art IS Art"!

[rosiepots]

nothing is ever simple!

[Jim]

Let's just get on and make some, shall we?
_________________
www.james-hobbs.blogspot.com
It's about drawing, mostly