What makes something "Art"?

[MysticSang'ha]

I'll respond to the rest later, but I needed to clarify something about the terms used.

Artist is rather obvious...

Is the object the original item of inspiration or recreation and the subject the piece of art (or someone who views the piece of art)?

Yes. Pretty much. I'm making these distinctions with the whole interrelationship between the creator, the work itself, the object of inspiration, and the audience/viewer.

 

[Adramelek]

To me art is anything, be it a painting or drawing, sculpture, piece of music, that causes an emotional response be it possitive or negative to the individual, and that makes you think in an abstract way.

Xeper.
/Adramelek\

 

[dust1n]

Yes. Pretty much. I'm making these distinctions with the whole interrelationship between the creator, the work itself, the object of inspiration, and the audience/viewer.

Aye, so is the subject the work itself or the audience/viewer?

Sorry, just trying to get a grasp on this one thing, but after I know, I can comment much better because I'm pretty sure I'm getting what you are saying at this point.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Aye, so is the subject the work itself or the audience/viewer?

Sorry, just trying to get a grasp on this one thing, but after I know, I can comment much better because I'm pretty sure I'm getting what you are saying at this point.

I look at it as the subject being the work itself.

 

[eyecareprofessional]

Art is what anyone can feel as beautiful.

 

[Thrice Great]

Art is what anyone can feel as beautiful.

Isn't that just beauty? The human condition to associate symmetry with good, pleasing things and asymmetry with evil things?

 

[Falvlun]

I am reading Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray". The preface to this book is a short treatise on what art is... or at least, what art should be. Forgive its length. I could not bear to chop it up:

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 mean 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.

 

[Thrice Great]

I can see the beauty in ugliness, I can see art in the grotesque, I can see creativity in evil.
Art is simply creating something that would never be unless you created it.

 

[dust1n]

I look at it as the subject being the work itself.

And, so, if I understood you right... what you are kinda saying is that "art" is the object/artist/subject experience in it's totality... and that all these things are explicit in an art form, and if one element is missing, then it might be considerable as art?

 

[MysticSang'ha]

And, so, if I understood you right... what you are kinda saying is that "art" is the object/artist/subject experience in it's totality... and that all these things are explicit in an art form, and if one element is missing, then it might be considerable as art?

I'd say that's a fair summary of my rambling. I can still ramble, though, since I have more to say.

Hell, I may have to go back to blogging with my mediocre writing skills to further explore what I have inside this crazy brain of mine.

 

[Sha'irullah]

Anything involving kitsch dramatization and .5 gallons of paint is called art. Simple enough.

The only person I recognize as an artist is Salvador Dali. Art is so subjective it transcends the theory of differing religion itself.

 

[dust1n]

I'd say that's a fair summary of my rambling. I can still ramble, though, since I have more to say.

Hell, I may have to go back to blogging with my mediocre writing skills to further explore what I have inside this crazy brain of mine.

I'll respond more when I have the time, particular on Danto, since it isn't as relevant as I first imagined, but I find Danto's description of early 20th century art and the changes that took place, very... enlightening in terms of where art has come from.

 

[crossfire]

Anything involving kitsch dramatization and .5 gallons of paint is called art. Simple enough.

The only person I recognize as an artist is Salvador Dali. Art is so subjective it transcends the theory of differing religion itself.

 

[Horrorble]

Continue from porn thread.
@Sunstone what is your definition of bad art?

 

[Sunstone]

Continue from porn thread.
@Sunstone what is your definition of bad art?

Off the top of my head:

Bad art is (1) art that does not achieve the artist's goals or purpose in creating it.
Bad art is (2) art that harmfully lies about or propagandizes its subject matter.
Bad art is (3) art that unjustly demeans, disparages, or denigrates its subject matter.

The first case, (1), is probably not applicable to porn, since pornographers might be presumed to seldom be attempting anything more than they realize.

But I think you could make the case that (2) and (3) would apply to a lot of porn. At any rate, such art is contemptible.

 

[Horrorble]

Off the top of my head:

Bad art is (1) art that does not achieve the artist's goals or purpose in creating it.
Bad art is (2) art that harmfully lies about or propagandizes its subject matter.
Bad art is (3) art that unjustly demeans, disparages, or denigrates its subject matter.

The first case, (1), is probably not applicable to porn, since pornographers might be presumed to seldom be attempting anything more than they realize.

But I think you could make the case that (2) and (3) would apply to a lot of porn. At any rate, such art is contemptible.

Ok cool that makes sense

 

[Thrice Great]

Off the top of my head:

Bad art is (1) art that does not achieve the artist's goals or purpose in creating it.
Bad art is (2) art that harmfully lies about or propagandizes its subject matter.
Bad art is (3) art that unjustly demeans, disparages, or denigrates its subject matter.

The first case, (1), is probably not applicable to porn, since pornographers might be presumed to seldom be attempting anything more than they realize.

But I think you could make the case that (2) and (3) would apply to a lot of porn. At any rate, such art is contemptible.

This would work if we replace the word "ART" with "CRAFT" because what you are describing here is craft and its appreciation or non-appreciation of it.

Art is subjective, it has its own purpose which the artist is not in control of, it can never lie, it can only be demeaning to those that allow it to be. (it is subjective)

Pornography is not Art, it is the regurgitation of sexual fetishes already installed in the mind and symbolically reintroduced to the consciousness for the sole purpose of financial gain.