At some point in our lives we have all encountered art. When thinking about the topic of art, creations such as paintings, drawings, and sculptures run through our minds. In today’s society, art is extremely prevalent. There are now more mediums than ever, which people can utilize to produce breath-taking artworks. Though everyone is familiar with art, people have difficulty coming up with a set definition for the term. Art is not the same as it was in the past, and is different throughout various parts of the globe. Some people are interested to get a deeper understanding of the concept and learn why it doesn’t have a specific definition.…
Conceptual Art maybe defined as a concept or art movement that came about the 1960’s as a reaction towards formalism. Where in art theory, formalism is a concept where an artwork or piece’s entire artistic value is based purely on its form and visual aspects. For example, American essayist/art critic, Clement Greenberg suggested the notion that art should examine its own nature and was already a potent aspect of vision of Modern art during the 1950’s. However with the mergence of conceptual artists such as Joseph Kossuth, Lawrence Weiner and many more, a far more radical interrogation of art than was previously done began. One of the first and most important things they questioned was the common assumption that the role of the artist was to create special kinds of material objects (Osborne 2002, 232). This essay will discuss as to why and how did Conceptual artists disagreed with the statement of formalism and set out to destroy or undermine the value of physical pleasure in art’s making and reception.…
Danto begins “The Artworld” by going after Socrates’ and Plato’s view of art as imitation or a mirror. He calls this the “Imitation Theory” or “IT”. If this were accurate then any image reflected in a mirror would also be considered an artwork. Although, many artists during Socrates’ and Plato’s time and later tried to imitate nature into their art. The advancements of photography ultimately ended this as an artform and proved the Imitation Theory to be false.…
Art itself is defined as works that are a product of human creativity and imagination however what exactly fits the criteria of art and who’s to say what is and isn’t art. Especially since everyone has a different perception of it art could be painting of a breathtaking landscape or splatter of paint on a canvas. Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s the Running Fence is primary example of this never ending debate.…
The author suggest that we ask ourselves: “What is the purpose of this work of art (and what is the purpose of art in general)? What does it mean? What is my reaction to the work and why do I feel this way? How do the formal qualities of the work-such as color, its organization, its size and scale-affect my reaction? What do I value in works of art?”…
5.) Why is no single theory of art adequate when examining and judging different works of art?…
Art is, not as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty…
In Carolyn Dean’s “The Trouble with (the Term) Art” (2006), the author explores the significance of the word art itself and dives into the deeper meaning of not only what art is, but when a piece can be labeled as art. Carolyn Dean successfully accomplishes her goal of providing readers with knowledge about the consequences of identifying art, where such a notion did or did not occur. Although Dean is pretty opinionated throughout the article, she backs up all of her thoughts by providing ample amounts of evidence and research supporting her claim. Her argument is solid and I think she provides very salient points throughout her article; however, I found her use of language hard to follow for readers who do not have such a profound background in art history.…
As time has passed, the many events that make up world history have transformed society and subsequently the purpose of art. The birth of art occurred around 25,000 years ago and between that time and now, many historical events had caused the purpose of art to change throughout different eras. These different events prove to impact the art of the eras that they occur in, and often many events will happen and art will constantly be changing. One can draw similarities and differences between artists responses to the world around them from two separate eras. Artists responses to their world can be specific yet common, and the purposes of art from these artists change as time moves forward.…
What is art? Although it is a drawn out cliché, the issue must be addressed. The best definition I could come up with is the combination of two definitions. Zaidel believes art attracts attention and elicits an aesthetic-related response.2 This definition is over-inclusive; if anything that attracts attention is art then is a traffic cone art? According to Haselberger, works of art are objects produced with the intention that they be aesthetically pleasing and not merely pragmatically functional.3 This definition is under inclusive, limiting art to solely be “pleasing”. Art attracts attention and elicits an aesthetic-related response but it is beyond functionality. This definition also helps to differentiate between art and tools, which are two similar but not equal things. Art is more about aesthetics while tools are more about functionality.…
I have always enjoyed viewing abstract art yet, at a certain point some abstract art seems to cross the boundary of what is considered as being art. This lead me to think about what can truly be called art. Paintings such as Jackson Pollack’s Convergence were argued to not be art as anyone could throw some paint on a canvas to create a similar drip style piece. Similarly, many works of art have been criticized as not being art due to being indecent or offensive and not offering any artistic value. However, one of the roles of an artist is to break down our preconceptions by offering a unique perspective that provokes us to rethink our definitions of the artists subject. The intrinsic value of a piece of art is subjective and can become more than what the artist intended or never seen for what the artist was aiming to invoke.…
Although the definition of art is not a definition as such, but more of personal preference and interpretation, I believe that whether it be psychological or visionary art, it can not be considered art unless it can be appreciated for the skills of the artist in its aesthetic value and meaning.…
What is art one might ask? Art can be seen as expression, form and representation. Art as representation is related to mimetic theory (Stremmel 2006). Mimetic theory comes from the Greek word "mimesis," which means imitation and representation (Hall 1997).Representation of art began with early ideas of Plato and Aristotle. Plato viewed art as an ‘imitation of nature.’ Due to this, art had no knowledge and therefore had no intellectual value. According to Plato, art was a copy of a copy thus barely real at all (Hall 1997). Like Plato, Aristotle maintained that art was a mimesis of nature; however he disagreed with the nature of that mimesis (Hall 1997). Unlike Plato, Aristotle had different views on how and what art imitates. Aristotle also believed art to be beneficial to society unlike Plato. There has been an importance in visual representation in modern culture as emphasised by Hall (1997). Representation refers to the construction in any media (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts (Hall 1997). In order to interpret the representation the social, cultural and political meaning of Propped (2002), as shown in Figure 1, theories of representation will be used.…
Just like the question in the beginning of the essay “What makes Art Art?” What a person perceives and or creates makes it to be called a masterpeice. Art does not have to be extra ordinary it is any shape it can be made out of anything or everything. It can be a simple piece of paper place in a certain part and that is art. Just like Graffiti, it also is art it may not be a Van Gogh but it also is Art. So when really think about it can we really decide how to qualify art as art? Or not call someone’s piece that they have worked so hard on not art? So does art make art art?…
Art has been created by all people at all times; it lives because it is liked and enjoyed. Art involves personal experiences of an individual accompanied by some intensity of emotion. Art is made of man, no matter how close it is to nature. Although each work of art is evidently the expression of an artists’ personal thoughts and feelings it may be inferred that, like any other individual, he belongs to a million, and he cannot free himself from the influence of his social, economic, political, cultural, geographic, scientific, and technological environment.…