Art  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 17:51, 23 August 2008

Nazi Germany disapproved of contemporary German art movements such as Expressionism and Dada and on July 19, 1937 it opened the Degenerate art travelling exhibition in the Haus der Kunst in Munich, consisting of modernist artworks chaotically hung and accompanied by text labels deriding the art, to inflame public opinion against modernity.

Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844) by William Turner, Impressionism avant la lettre

Piranesi, Deuxième frontispice - Le Antichità Romane, tome II

"Hell" detail from Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights

Olympia by Édouard Manet, painted in 1863, it stirred an uproar when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon. Today, it is considered as the start of modern art.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1820s), woodblock printing by Hokusai

Ars Memoriae: The Theatre (1619) - Robert Fludd

From the Bizzarie di varie figure (1624) by Giovanni Battista Braccelli

Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket, (1874) James McNeill Whistler

Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (c. 1450) Jean Fouquet

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Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

«La culture, c’est la règle, et l’art, c’est l’exception» --Jean-Luc Godard

1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
2. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
3. Activity intended to make something special
4. A recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical value-judgements
5. The study and the product of these processes.
6. Aesthetic value.
7. In printing, Artwork.
8. A field or category of art, such as painting, sculpture, music, ballet, or literature.
9. A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
10. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation.

Synonyms

• (Human effort): creation, grandeur, wonder

Antonyms

• (Human effort): mundacity, nature, subsistence

Definition

The term art is used to describe a particular type of creative production generated by human beings, and the term usually implies some degree of aesthetic value. An artist makes a work of art for various purposes, such as creating an experience for others or as part of a ritual. There is no general agreed-upon definition of art, since defining the boundaries of "art" is subjective, but the impetus for art is often called human creativity.

Art, in its broadest meaning, is the expression of creativity or imagination, or both.

Throughout the written history of humankind, various constrictions have been applied to the broad concept. Most individuals know what they consider to be art, and what they believe is not art. Additionally, groups, such as academia, have a vaguely shared notions of what is, or is not, art.

The word art is often used to refer to the visual arts, and arts is used to refer to visual art, literature, music, dance — the fine arts. However, such distinctions are the subject of many discussions and debates.

Art seems to be almost universal throughout the human race — integral to the human condition. There are no cultures that do not participate in it to some extent, and child art is created by all from about the first birthday.

Etymology

The word art derives from the Latin ars, which, loosely translated, means "arrangement" or "to arrange", though in many dictionaries the word's listing is tautologically translated as "art". This is the only universal definition of art, that whatever it is was at some point arranged in some way. A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, artillery, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymological roots.

Defining art

There is often confusion about the meaning of the term art because multiple meanings of the word are used interchangeably. Individuals use the word art to identify painting, as well as singing.

Characteristics of art

1. Requires creative perception both by the artist and by the audience
2. Elusive (as in "tending to evade cut-and-dried definitions or being fixedly grasped")
3. Communicates on many levels and is open to many interpretations
4. Connotes a sense of ability
5. Interplay between the conscious and unconscious part of our being, between what is real and what is an illusion
6. Any human creation which contains an idea other than its utilitarian purpose.
7. That which is created with intention to be experienced as art

Judgments of value

The word art is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions as "that meal was a work of art" (the cook is an artist), or "the art of deception," (the highly attained level of skill of the deceiver is praised). It is this use of the word as a measure of high quality and high value that gives the term its flavor of subjectivity.

Making judgments of value requires a basis for criticism: a way to determine whether the impact of the object on the senses meets the criteria to be considered art, whether it is perceived to be ugly or beautiful. Perception is always colored by experience, so a reaction to art as 'ugly' or 'beautiful' is necessarily subjective.

Because of its elusive nature, "good" art is not always, or even regularly, appealing. In other words, it does not have to be "nice-looking", and often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. Countless schools have proposed their own ways to define quality, yet they all seem to agree in at least one point: once their aesthetic choices are accepted, the value of the work of art is determined by its capacity to transcend the limits of its chosen medium in order to strike some universal chord (which, oddly enough, tends to be the most personal one).

Institutional definition

Many people's opinions of what art would fall inside a relatively small range of accepted standards, or "institutional definition of art" (George Dickie 1974). This derives from education and other social factors. Most people did not consider the depiction of a Brillo Box or a store-bought urinal to be art until Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp (respectively) placed them in the context of art (i.e., the art gallery), which then provided the association of these objects with the values that define art.

Most viewers of these objects initially rejected such associations, because the objects did not, themselves, meet the accepted criteria. The objects needed to be absorbed into the general consensus of what art is before they achieved the near-universal acceptance as art in the contemporary era. Once accepted and viewed with a fresh eye, the smooth, white surfaces of Duchamp's urinal are strikingly similar to classical marble sculptural forms, whether the artist intended it or not. This type of recontextualizing provides the same spark of connection expected from any "good" art.

Consensus

The work of painter Jackson Pollock appeared to be the result of throwing and pouring of paint on a canvas, apparently without skill, and brought into question the validity of much contemporary art (1960 to present). To most people, his work seems to be something that any three-year-old could easily do. There is often such consensus of agreement about what can be considered art. This consensus does not appear to be static over time and can be seen as being similar to evolution's doctrine of survival of the fittest, where even good ideas inevitably disappear and are ploughed under by history, while other ideas survive.

Social class

Art is often seen as belonging to one social class and excluding others. In this context, art is seen as a high-status activity associated with wealth, the ability to purchase art, and the leisure required to enjoy it. The palaces of Versailles or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg with their vast collections of art, amassed by the fabulously wealthy royalty of Europe exemplify this view. Collecting such art is the preserve of the rich.

However, there is a (not always deliberate) tradition of artists bringing their vision down to earth, and inhabiting a mundane, even poverty stricken, world. The life of Vincent van Gogh is a classic example of this starving artist tradition.

Before the 13th century in Europe, artisans were considered to belong to a lower caste, since they were essentially manual labourers. After Europe was re-exposed to classical culture during the Renaissance, particularly in the nation states of what is now Italy (Florence, Siena), artists gained an association with high status. However, arrangements of "fine" and expensive goods have always been used by institutions of power as marks of their own status. This is seen in the 20th and 21st century by the commissioning or purchasing of art by big businesses and corporations as decoration for their offices.

The use of art

There are many who ascribe to certain arts the quality of being non-utilitarian. This fits within the "art as good" system of definitions and suffers from a class prejudice against labor and utility. Opponents of this view argue that all human activity has some utilitarian function, and these objects claimed to be "non-utilitarian" actually have the rather mundane and banal utility of attempting to mystify and codify unworkable justifications for arbitrary social hierarchy.

Art is also used by clinical psychologists as art therapy. The end product is not the principal goal in this case; rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought.

The "use" of art from the artist’s standpoint is as a means of expression. When art is conceived as a device, it serves several context and perspective specific functions. From the artist’s perspective it allows one to symbolize complex ideas and emotions in an arbitrary language subject only to the interpretation of the self and peers.

In a social context, it can serve to soothe the soul and promote popular morale.

From a more anthropological prospective, it is a way of passing ideas and concepts on to later generations in a (somewhat) universal language. The interpretation of this language is very dependent upon the observer’s perspective and context. From a subjective perspective, art has many uses dependent upon the state of the mind that asks the question “what utility might art have?”

Context

Photographs of un-posed "real life" are generally considered art, even though many photographs simply seek to reproduce by machine what people can see with their own eyes. However, the reproduction is not neutral — the artist selects the image. This is also one of the goals of found art: to recontextualize the art of everyday objects.

Skill

A common view is that art requires a creative and unique perception of both the artist and audience. For example, a common contemporary criticism of some modern painting might be, "my five-year old could have painted that" — implying that the work is somehow less worthy of the title art, either because the viewer fails to find meaning in the work, or because the work doesn't appear to have required any skill to produce. This view is often described as a lay critique and derives from the fact that in Western culture at least, art has traditionally been pushed in the direction of representationalism, the literal presentation of reality through literal images.

Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium. It can also simply refer to the developed and efficient use of a language so as to convey meaning, with immediacy and or depth.

Communicating emotion

Art appeals to human emotions. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists have to express themselves so that their public is aroused, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art explores both human emotions and ways to arouse them — and good art brings something new and original in either of these two respects.

So called "folk", "visonary" or "self-taught" artists almost always try to convey or appeal to emotions. While their work may often fall into the "my five-year-old could do that" category of art appreciation/criticism, their genuine desire to convey emotion or to impart moral/religious values has a place in the world of art.

Creative impulse

From one perspective, art is a generic term for any product of the creative impulse, out of which sprang all other human pursuits — such as science via alchemy, and religion via shamanism. The term 'art' offers no true definition besides those based within the cultural, historical and geographical context in which it is applied.

Development of symbols

Work with the influence of other artists of the past and present, much of the development of individual artists deals with finding principles for how to express certain ideas through various kinds of symbolism. For example, Vasily Kandinsky developed his use of color in painting through a system of stimulus response, where over time he gained an understanding of the emotions that can be evoked by color and combinations of color. Contemporary artist Andy Goldsworthy, on the other hand, chose to use the medium of found natural objects and materials to arrange temporary sculptures; the only record of these sculptures brought back to the world comes in the form of a modest photograph.

Art as an entity

Definitions of art and aesthetic arguments usually proceed from one of several possible perspectives. Art may be defined by the intention of the artist as in the writings of Dewey. Art may be seen as being in the response/emotion of the viewer as Tolstoy claims. In Danto's view, it can be defined as a character of the item itself or as a function of an object's context. For Plato, art is imitation.

Forms of art

There are a variety of arts, including visual arts and design, decorative arts, plastic arts, and the performing arts. Artistic expression takes many forms, painting, drawing, sculpture, music, literature, performance art, printmaking, film, and possibly architecture are the most widely recognised forms. However, since the advent of modernism and the technological revolution, new forms have emerged. These include, photography, comics, video art, installation art, conceptual art, computer art and, most recently, video games.

Within each form, a wide range of genres may exist. For instance, a painting may be a still life, a portrait, a landscape and may deal with historical or domestic subjects. In addition, a work of art may be representational or abstract.

Most forms of art fit under two main categories: fine arts and applied arts, though there is no clear dividing line. In the visual arts, fine arts refers to painting, sculpture, and architecture, arts which have no practical function and are valued in terms of the visual pleasure they provide or their success in communicating ideas or feelings. The one exception is architecture, which involves designing structures that strive to be both attractive and functional. The term applied arts is most often used to describe the design or decoration of functional objects to make them visually pleasing. Artists who create applied arts or crafts are usually referred to as designers, artisans, or craftspeople.

Research interests

• Art and politics
• Art as an excuse for depicting prurient interests
• Artworld economics
• Patronage
• Starving artist
• Tortured artist
• Byronic hero

By region

American art - Italian art - French art - Belgian art Flemish art - British art

Related

aesthetics - abstract art - advertising - appropriation - architecture - art criticism - art deco - art film - art for art's sake - art history - art horror - artificial - art nouveau - artist - art music - art theory - avant-garde - beauty - commercial art - content - convention - creativity - design - drawing - erotic art - fantasy - fashion - fiction - film - fine arts - form - found objects - gaze - genre - graphic art - grotesque art - high arts - image - imagination - imitation - innovation - kitsch - low arts - medium - music - nude - originality - painting - photography - religion - reproduction - representation - Salons des Refusés - show - style - technique - taste - theatre - visual arts - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

More

academic art - abstract art - anti-art - body art - conceptual art - contemporary art - dada - decadent art - decorative art - electronic art - degenerate art - expressionism - fantastic art - impressionism - Fluxus - futurism - landscape - minimalism - Mannerism - modern art - Modernism - pop art - postmodern art - romanticism - realism - renaissance - surrealism - symbolism - transgressive art

By sense

For the eye - For the ear - For the mind

Controversial art

see also transgressive art

Theodore Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa" (1820), was a social commentary on a current event, unprecedented at the time. Edouard Manet's "Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" (1863), was considered scandalous not because of the nude woman, but because she is seated next to fully-dressed men. John Singer Sargent's "Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madam X)" (1884), caused a huge uproar over the reddish pink used to color the woman's ear lobe, considered far too suggestive and supposedly ruining the high-society model's reputation.

In the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) used arresting cubist techniques and stark monochromatic oils, to depict the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. Leon Golub's Interrogation III (1981), depicts a female nude, hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to reveal her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in everyday clothing. Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, sacred to the Christian religion and representing Christ's sacrifice and final suffering, submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine. The resulting uproar led to comments in the United States Senate about public funding of the arts.

In the twenty-first century, Eric Fischl created Tumbling Woman as a memorial to those who jumped or fell to their death in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Initially installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City, within a year the work was removed as too disturbing.

List of visual artists

A - Marina Abramoviæ - Vito Acconci - Jacques Fabian Gautier d'Agoty - Laurie Anderson - Arcimboldo - B - Balthus - Matthew Barney - Jean-Michel Basquiat - Aubrey Beardsley - Max Beckmann - Vanessa Beecroft - Hans Bellmer - Richard Bernstein - Gilles Berquet - Fred Bervoets - Joseph Beuys - Guillaume Bijl - Arnold Böcklin - Hieronymus Bosch - Marcel Broodthaers - Pieter Brueghel the Elder - François Boucher - C - Rupert Carabin - Caravaggio - Pierre Cardin - Paul Chabas - Lucas Cranach - Gustave Courbet - André Courrèges - John Currin - D - Salvador Dalí - Honoré Daumier - Eugène Delacroix - Luc Deleu - Wim Delvoye - Achille Devéria - Danny Devos - Otto Dix - Gustave Doré - Marcel Duchamp - Albrecht Dürer - E - James Ensor - Tracey Emin - Max Ernst - F - Jan Fabre - Eric Fischl - Henry Fuseli - Piero Fornasetti - G - Antoni Gaudí - Théodore Géricault - Jean-Léon Gérôme - H. R. Giger - Gilbert & George - Vincent van Gogh - Francisco de Goya - Dan Graham - Grandville - Hans Baldung Grien - George Grosz - Matthias Grünewald - H - Richard Hamilton - Keith Haring - Raoul Hausmann - Damien Hirst - Hokusai - Jenny Holzer - I - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - J - Allen Jones - Frida Kahlo - Yves Klein - Gustav Klimt - K - Mike Kelley - Jeff Koons - L - Jean-Jacques Lebel - Fernand Léger - Tamara de Lempicka - Mirka Lugosi - M - René Magritte - Edouard Manet - Piero Manzoni - Marcel Mariën - Quentin Massys - Alessandro Mendini - Claude Monet - Gustave Moreau - Otto Mühl - Pierre Molinier - Carlo Mollino - William Morris - Edvard Munch - N - Hermann Nitsch - O - Chris Ofili - Orlan - P - Panamarenko - Francis Picabia - Georges Pichard - Pablo Picasso - Giovanni Piranesi - Jackson Pollock - R - Paco Rabanne - Marcantonio Raimondi - Man Ray - Paula Rego - Jamie Reid - Félicien Rops - Peter Paul Rubens - S - Andres Serrano - Egon Schiele - Cindy Sherman - Romain Slocombe - Robert Smithson - Hajime Sorayama - Eric Stanton - T - Roland Topor - Clovis Trouille - Luc Tuymans - V - Leonardo da Vinci - W - Andy Warhol - James Whistler - John Willie - Z - Unica Zürn

Related topics

• Defining art
• Abstract art
• Aesthetics, a philosophical field related to art
• Anthropology of art
• Applied art
• Art criticism
• Art gallery
• Art groups
• Art history
• Art styles, periods and movements
• Art techniques and materials
• Art therapy
• Artist
• Arts
• Beauty
• Figurative art
• Fine art
• Landscape art
• Modern art
• Design