what is art?

[indra]

What is art? Is it limited to paintings and sculptures and the like, or can music or writing also be art? Must art be pretty or pleasing to the eye or ear? Can something be downright ugly and be art? Can art be offensive?

Who determines what is art? Is it the creator of the work? Or the viewer? Or is it someone else entirely? Can something be art to one person and just stuff to someone else, or must it be art to all? Is art important to a society? If so, why? Does art mold a society or culture, or does the society/culture mold the art?

I've been pondering this lately, so I thought I would see what others think.

 

[beli]

Art = anything pretty and useless

I thought music etc where also arts - performing arts.

No art doesnt have to be pretty or pleasing. That Symbiotica live pig skin growing sculpture is not something that I even want to look at but Im sure some people consider it art.

oops gotta go....

 

[david]

art is reflective of society and culture. i believe art is anything created. i see art in everything.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Art is a creation that shows the human spirit.

Crap is postmodern self concious shock pieces, think Piss Christ, that is not art is is just crap.

 

[cujo]

my pretentious connoisseur of syllables answer:

As soon as a definition or limitation is imposed on a piece or a work, it becomes discrete and quantifiable. I think at this point a creation loses its fundamental artistic quality that allows for the expression and perception of its transcendental qualities. Art is something that just is... not something that can be underpinned by a series of scripts or questions (along the lines of what David said).

Beauty and aesthetic appeal may be present in some art, but the most meaningful pieces are those that subscribe to a process of revealing that allows a viewer to observe the artist's intention... freeing the audience to manifest their own personal interpretations of the work.

Don't forget the velvet rope too.



~voice of embittery

 

[kennerado]

I may not know art but I know what I like.

 

[Catman]

I like mice jumping on kittens

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_nov2003/BellyDancer.gif

 

[U2Kitten]

Art is a creation that shows the human spirit.

Crap is postmodern self concious shock pieces, think Piss Christ, that is not art is is just crap.

I agree.

 

[Popmartijn]

If you don't know what you're doing, babe it must be art

 

[ylimeU2]

It was only a matter of time before someone said that.

 

[babyman]

it's the expression of the soul

 

[U2Kitten]

I've been waiting for the old 'is it art, or is it pornography?' from ZOO TV.

 

[bammo2]

I prefer the Oscar Wilde quote:

"All art is quite useless"

lol

 

[bammo2]

*cut and paste*

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner
or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode
of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt
without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things means only
Beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of
Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of
the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect
use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove
anything. Even things that are true can be proved.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy
in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express
everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is
the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling,
the actor's craft is the type.
All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work
is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree the artist is in accord with
himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he
does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.

- Oscar Wilde
Preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray"


The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

[theSoulfulMofo]

Aye, art - the decay of lying indeed.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

what is art? baby don't hurt me... don't hurt me... no more