What is art?

[thatboyChase]

Hi,

 

I'm taking an art theory class and the pretend funny professor gave us an assignment. "Interview" 50 people and ask them "What is art?" So, what is art to you? Describe it in a simple sentence or just one adjective.

 

When you look at art, or think of the word art, what is the first thing that comes to mind? If people can participate in this, I can get my homework done and go play out in the street until dinner. Thanks.

[Kev de Cauchery]

Art represents creativity.

 

 

I hope it helps.

[Mark Arbour]

Art is this guy who lives down the street from me.

[Mark Arbour]

Art is an attempt to express something. It is a form of language.

[Nephylim]

Art is the unique expression of each individual's innate aesthetic creativity.... or some such bollocks. Art is art.

[Toast]

Art is an ache in my heart.

[Dargon]

Art is any and all things/actions/sayings that speaks to one's soul

[corvus]

Art is the disciplined combination of creativity, spirit and intelligence that both uniquely reflects the world and its creator.

 

Haha.

[Tarin]

Art is a snapshot of life.

[Daisy]

is whatever I like.

[MikeL]

Art is any form of creative communication. It may be visual or audible or it may appeal to the olfactory senses.

Edited January 12, 2010 by MikeL

[Cia]

Great art is emotion, what you feel when you create or view it.

 

 

[Conner]

Art is any form of creative communication. It may be visual or audible or it may appeal to the olfactory senses.

 

Does that mean a good dump is art???

[TetRefine]

Art is something that relays an idea deeper than what first meets the eye.

[MikeL]

Does that mean a good dump is art???

How very crude, Conner.

 

By olfactory, I meant something which smells or tastes good. It could be a very fine perfume, a fancy dinner where presentation is prized as highly as taste, or it could be a slice of my mom's Southern pecan pie.

 

If you ever figure a way to earn a living from the "art form" you suggested, I want to hear about it, but not witness a performance.

[Mark Arbour]

How very crude, Conner.

 

By olfactory, I meant something which smells or tastes good. It could be a very fine perfume, a fancy dinner where presentation is prized as highly as taste, or it could be a slice of my mom's Southern pecan pie.

 

If you ever figure a way to earn a living from the "art form" you suggested, I want to hear about it, but not witness a performance.

 

So now you insult forms of art?

 

What makes the smell of perfume or pecan pie a more valid artistic smell than feces? Not all art is pleasant.

[myself_i_must_remake]

art is what is being beheld as "art" at any moment when the viewer privileges the aesthetic qualities of said object/performance over its other qualities (say, functionality.) in this way, art is subjective and some (all?) things are not art all the time. (gymnastics becomes exercise when no one watches the performer, and when the performer does not think about the way what he is doing looks. as soon as the gymnast's aesthetic self-conscious takes precedence over his technical concerns for his maneuvers, it becomes art again.)

 

people might disagree with me, then. my art requires a watching eye, even if it be the creator's.

[Camilo]

When an object is deemed "above normal", that is art.

[Arpeggio]

Art is an universal language ;p

[gardentuber]

art is communication that exists on multiple levels

 

I'm really impressed with the majority of responses to this query. It's a question that seems to have stumped lots of folks in the past century, but that folks here can take in stride. Good on you(all)!

[JamesSavik]

Art is very, very, very, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY subjective.

 

Some people think that Italian paintings are masterpieces.

 

Others are horrified because Christ is being murdered in most of them.

 

Much of it has to do with culture, context and values.

 

Once when I was a small dyslexic kid visiting my older brother on a university campus I saw a modernistic building and read the plaque on the front: Gallery of Fine Rats.

 

Naturally I asked, "What makes the Rats here any different from the rats back home?"

 

It took me years to figure out why the adults were laughing their ass off.

[thatboyChase]

Thank you everyone!

[Tiger]

Art is a representation of beauty and sometimes of ugliness. It can be a painting or a sculpture. It can be something you eat. It can be the music of a symphony.

Edited January 13, 2010 by Tiger

[Myval]

Art is a personal and subjective thing. It is a small fraction of the artists soul. And how you are affected is a representive of yourself and your values and believes.

 

 

[Rigel]

Art is that which allows a refractive perspective on the world.

 

--Rigel