How to define art?

« How to define art The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

Is it Possible to Define Art? By Ford Crull To even attempt a definition of art today seems almost insurmountable.

But what might be more reasonable is to seek some understanding of the issues that are prevalent in our current artistic climate.

One common thread among everyone, it was whether the work (or whatever the effort) was moving or involving on some level.

It made them think and/or question what the artist’s intention was.

I loved this thought from a dear writer friend: “Great art” always defies the rules and breaks equilibrium.

And it often upsets the status quo.

Art these days is concerned less with beautiful objects than with cogent ideas.

1 The idea may be about anything, from gender to technology, social issues, religion, and even perception itself.

And it doesn’t matter if the object or idea has any sense of beauty at all.

The important issues are whether it clearly represents the concept the artist is trying to espouse and whether it communicates with the viewer on some level.

another aspect: have we entered an era when works of art are seen as commodities and success is measured by dollar value? And who decides what is valuable? Certainly there has been a shift from scholarship to the power elite of dealers, collectors, auction houses, even the art fairs.

Assuming that the market is not allpowerful, we have to ask ourselves: is there any valid way of determining what art is now? I would suggest that lasting and significant art has a creative function in our society, i.e. it has transformative power, it communicates something deeply personal and yet archetypal, as well.

It is something that almost everyone would somehow be able to recognize, and even if it lacks formalistic sophistication it reaches out and engages the viewer on some level.

another definition; Works of art may elicit a sense of wonder or cynicism, hope or despair, adoration or spite ; 2 the work of art may be direct or complex, subtle or explicit, intelligible or obscure; and the subjects and approaches to the creation of art are bounded only by the imagination of the artist.

Consequently, I believe that defining art based upon its content is a doomed enterprise.

Mike Mallory Everett The fundamental difference between art and beauty is that art is about who has produced it, whereas beauty depends on who’s looking.

Art is a means to state an opinion or a feeling, or else to create a different view of the world, whether it be inspired by the work of other people or something invented that’s entirely new.

Beauty is whatever aspect of that or anything else that makes an individual feel positive or grateful. Beauty alone is not art, but art can be made of, about or for beautiful things. Beauty can be found in a snowy mountain scene: art is the photograph of it shown to family, the oil interpretation of it hung in a gallery, or the music score recreating the scene in crotchets and quavers.

However, art is not necessarily positive: it can be deliberately hurtful or displeasing: it can make you think about or consider things that you would rather not.

But if it evokes an emotion in you, then it is art.

Chiara Leonard. »