What is good art?

What is Good Art? Art, which brings out the creative side in a person, is the expression of a person’s thoughts. These thoughts range from personal happenings to powerful events around the world. Art is intended to evoke a feeling. Good art is dependent on the feeling the artist captures. To start, good art doesn’t need to make sense; it just needs to get people thinking. In the early 16th century, Leonardo Da Vinci painted the “Mona Lisa.” When I first look at the painting my eyes are immediately transfixed on the girl’s face. At first glance, it seems as though she has a blank stare, and is simply looking to her left. I think it represents a woman at a time when women were treated unfairly throughout the world. This could be why the “Mona Lisa” is so popular, because she is relatable to the viewer. This forms a connection and the viewer is glued to this painting because of the appearance of similar experiences. After closer examination it appears as though she is smiling. What makes the girl so intriguing is that when people look at her face for a long time, they start to see different things. This curiosity is what has caused so many people to ask questions, such as, who she is, what she is looking at, and even what she is thinking. The unknown facts, is what makes some art so great, and the “Mona Lisa” is considered to be one of the best paintings of all time. In addition, good art doesn’t need to have positive meaning or affect. The band, Foster the People, came out with the hit song “Pumped Up Kicks.” This song is about a kid preparing to shoot his classmates at school. The song starts with a very ominously sounding bass, and then it says, “In his dad’s closet hidden in a box of fun things…he’s coming for you, yeah he’s coming for you”(Foster the People). When listening to the song, I can picture the singer sadistically singing with a smirk on his face. The chorus is what really makes the song disturbing, because Foster the People changes the dark sounding bass, into an upbeat harmony with the rest of the band. If there were no lyrics it would almost sound happy. The band goes into the chorus, and sings, “All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun … You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.”(Foster the People). It’s apparent that lyrics don’t have a cheerful meaning. The lyrics, along with the tone of the song, make it sound really unsettling. Although this song is quite perturbing, it did very well on the billboards, reaching the top ten in 2011. As a result of the song, Foster the People has become very popular. They were at Lollapalooza and on “Saturday Night Live” in 2011. This song proves that art doesn’t have to be positive for it to be considered good. Indeed, there are many forms of art, and there are many artists. What makes good art is the feeling the audience gets when observing the artwork. The feeling is affected by whether art is positive or negative, whether the audience has to think, and also how relatable the artwork is to the viewer.