What is art?

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Because this is such an open question I decided to forgo any background intro:

 

What, in your opinion, is "Art"?

[Jeanway 0]

Art to me is everywhere. Especially in nature. All of God's creations are Art to me. I marvel at everything. I do tend to look for the beauty in things. Even in a beautiful word or thought. Can a thought be a work of at??? Yes it can, I think. Most people would say Art is something that is estheticly pleasing. But there is Art in things that are ugly too, to some people. I think Art is also a subjective thing. What's Art to one person may not be Art to another. Good question U.H. Edited October 10, 2004 by Jeanway

[Rivendells_king 0]

pratically everything but some times I wonder about some of the modern art with like only lines and stuff like that, that is kinda weird.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Jeanway, needless to say I love the graphic in your last post.

 

I've been thinking about this since I posed the question. And to some extent RK is right in that anything can be art.

 

Here's my definition. Art is the intentional "manipulation of the environment" to convey or express a thought or a feeling.

 

Manipulating the environment would cover materials such as paint or sculpture, movement such as dance, production of sound and even directing behavior as in acting. The thought or feeling can be purely aesthetic as in color, harmony, form or it can ask a question of the viewer.

 

Under my definition - the natural occurence of a sunset is not "art" because it is not manipulated - but taking a picture and framing it in order to convey the "feeling" of a sunset would be.

 

Under this definition the answer to RK's question is yes if there was a message being expressed. Of course the next question is what is the relevance of the message?

 

Sometimes in art the message is too shocking - like the guy that put goldfish in a blender (and some people did press the button ) This raised an outcry - but what about the message he was trying to convey. Read about it @BBC

 

One question I can't answer is why certain paintings are worth millions or billions but IMO, they are not as aesthetically pleasing as some much less expensive drawings etc.

[Angela 1]

I am someone that likes some of the most controversial 'art' in recent times and TUH is partly right in when art is the careful manipulation of an environment to convey feelings.

 

But sometimes art doesn't so much convey feelings so much as an absence of feeling. Would this absence of feeling mean that art no longer is art? And of course taking off from the art sometimes creats an absence of feeling it can also become a double whammy in the fact that it can create a lack of thought. Does this too mean that the 'art' is no longer 'art'?

 

And the modern form of art as everyone here is thinking is of a pictorgarcphic (even in 3d it is a frozen momnent) but art can also be dance, acting, and very much alive!

[Jeanway 0]

No thanks U.H. I chose not to watch THAT. :blink: Yes I forgot about feelings. Very good point. I never thought of a feeling as Art. In that case anything that would involk a feeling would be considered or could be considered a paintbrush. :lol: And feelings, I think, are the most important thing. How something or someone makes us FEEL is grossly dismissed as unimportant. But how many times do you avoid a person because they make you FEEL bad? Or how many foods do you NOT eat because the taste is not pleasing and makes you FEEL dissatisfied. Or how does cold or heat make you FEEL? Or how many words that you hear coming from someone's mouth hurt your FEELINGS and make you FEEL bad? Or the person you love tells you they love you and makes you FEEL wonderful and you want to be with that person? Yes and how many places do you not go to because the FEELING there is uncomfortable for you? And other places you just can't wait to get to because when your there you FEEL wonderful? Like this site Good topic!

[Rivendells_king 0]

ok the fish in the blender was well weird to me, so what the person is telling me I could put a dog in a room that if you push a button gas comes out and kills the dog instantly and that is art?

[Jeanway 0]

Yep, and that's murder too.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

UA I included painting, sculpture, dance, music, drama and even if I didn't specifically cover writing it still falls under the definition - as would photography. But then there are areas that combine elements of art with functionality such as clothing construction, cake decorating, needlework, landscaping, architecture and interior design. While these fields aren't generally considered art they often involve manipulating materials, space, lighting etc to convey a feeling or sometimes a message.

 

Is the intent to express "absence of feeling" in itself a thought (and my definition included both thought and feeling because they are different)? Isn't there a cliche expression about artists are trying to convey the feeling of the "meaninglessness of existence".

 

I'm not sure if anything short of drugs can really inspire absence of thought (although some of these "reality" shows probably come close )

 

But UA, to rephrase your question, if something has no effect on the viewer is it art? I would say it would depend on what the artist intended - unless he intended his work to be invisible it would probably be intended to convey some message - ie thought or feeling, even if certain viewers didn't get the message I would still consider it art.

 

It would be a totally different topic as to whether all art has social merit? Here I was just trying to define it.

[Gotabite 0]

Jeanway, my thoughts about art are very similar to yours. I view art as "nature made" and "man made"......... Have you ever been to the Painted Desert?..........Now that is art in its most natural form. I also believe art to be very subjective..........As you said what one person views as a piece of art, someone else make look at it and see no art at all.......I feel that art, as is beauty, is always in the eye of the beholder.

Art to me is everywhere. Especially in nature. All of God's creations are Art to me. I marvel at everything. I do tend to look for the beauty in things. I think Art is also a subjective thing. What's Art to one person may not be Art to another. :(  Good question U.H.

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[mj 7]

Art is the intentional "manipulation of the environment" to convey or express a thought or a feeling.

 

This is a good definition of art. I used to be quite interested in art, and took art history and theory of art classes when I was an undergraduate (math major). The one thing that stayed with me from the theory of art class was the idea that an artist attempts to draw the viewer or audience into his own creative experience.

 

That idea changed the way I looked at art. I visited the Art Institutute in Chicago many times. I remember I went with a friend once to see special Monet exhibit. A room filled with paintings of haystacks. We did not get it. After taking the theory class, I thought about the exhibit.....my friend and I had looked at every single painting... I saw it differentlly in retrospect. It's hard to explain, but it no longer seemed liked a meaningless exercise to me. I feel I was invited to walk with Monet ( in retrospect) and see what he saw.

 

I could never 'get' the Lady of the Loop, a Picasso sculpture in Chicago, which my family saw a few days after it was unveiled during our first visit to Chicago. I got nothing out of anything Picasso did for years. Now I see things in a lot of his work, including Guernica ( sp? ) for example, because I look at art as being a creative act into which I want to enter in. Guernica ( sp?) is so powerful I can still feel the mother screaming....it is an image that will not go away. Picasso makes you feel the noise in that scene.....

 

Sometimes I am not interested in what the artist wants to communicate, so I do not bother to enter his/her world.

 

I also consider writing to be art, and while an undergraduate math major, took a class on James Joyce (an artist who is completely over my head) and a class on Robert Frost, with whom I have walked through many woods.

 

" I saw a dimpled spider, fat and white, on a white heal-all holding up a moth like a white peice of rigid satin cloth. Assorted characters of death and blight mixed ready to make the morning right, like the ingredients of a witch's broth: a snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth, and dead wings carried like a paper kite. What had that flower to do with being white, the wayside blue, the innocent heal-all? What brought the kindred spider to that height, then steered the white moth thither in the night? What but design of darkness to apall, if design govern in a thing so small? " A perfect piece of Robert Frost's art (unless slightly misquoted...and I didn't retain his form). A perfectly constructed image for his sublime thought. He invites us to sit next to him and look at what he sees, in order to communicate what he feels and thinks. That's art.