I Like Art
With the hundreds of thousands of profiles on Blogger alone, it seems that a good majority of them list 'art' as an interest. Of these, I'm betting that 95% of those people have an ameturish appriciation at best. But that's really not the point. Since most of us aren't art historians or critics this is not really surprising. What is awesome is that so many people derive some kind of satisfaction or enjoyment from creative enterprises. I myself make no claim to knowing much (if anything) about art, and sometimes I get the sneaking suspicion that the so-called 'experts' are really just making it up as they go along.
Indeed it's probably trite to say that each and every one of us would probably define art in a different way, and still art has a way of eluding all these attempts to pin it down.
In college, I took a course on, "the philosophy of art" which was quite interesting even though I have forgotten the majority of what I learned. What I remember is that there are many competing theories about exactly what art is. For example, if you were to say you liked Motzart's fifth symphony, what is it exactly that you are saying that you like? Do you like a particular performance of it that you heard in concert? Do you have a CD that you listen to regularly? Or do you like picking up sheet music and hearing it's contents in your head? In other words, is the artistry in the notations on the paper, the performance, or the recording?
Or consider that our contempory notions of art have their roots in a very specific period of time. DaVinci didn't think of his work as art in the same way we do. His objective was to represent real objects (and people) as realistically as possible. He was a tradesperson whose intention was to make realistic depictions, a mathematical and technical problem. With the invention of the camera, however, our ideas about the mechanics and aesthetics of art changed. So when Duchamp signs his name on a urinal and declairs it art, what exactly is he trying to tell us?
Food for thought. There are, of course, entire spectrums of ways to relate to art. Be that emotional, aethetic, or otherwise. You can love or hate a peice. People of VanGogh's time thought his paintings were ugly and he never sold a single piece. Yet now he is widely regarded as a genius.
I like art for a lot of reasons. But then again, that's just me.
Indeed it's probably trite to say that each and every one of us would probably define art in a different way, and still art has a way of eluding all these attempts to pin it down.
In college, I took a course on, "the philosophy of art" which was quite interesting even though I have forgotten the majority of what I learned. What I remember is that there are many competing theories about exactly what art is. For example, if you were to say you liked Motzart's fifth symphony, what is it exactly that you are saying that you like? Do you like a particular performance of it that you heard in concert? Do you have a CD that you listen to regularly? Or do you like picking up sheet music and hearing it's contents in your head? In other words, is the artistry in the notations on the paper, the performance, or the recording?
Or consider that our contempory notions of art have their roots in a very specific period of time. DaVinci didn't think of his work as art in the same way we do. His objective was to represent real objects (and people) as realistically as possible. He was a tradesperson whose intention was to make realistic depictions, a mathematical and technical problem. With the invention of the camera, however, our ideas about the mechanics and aesthetics of art changed. So when Duchamp signs his name on a urinal and declairs it art, what exactly is he trying to tell us?
Food for thought. There are, of course, entire spectrums of ways to relate to art. Be that emotional, aethetic, or otherwise. You can love or hate a peice. People of VanGogh's time thought his paintings were ugly and he never sold a single piece. Yet now he is widely regarded as a genius.
I like art for a lot of reasons. But then again, that's just me.
posted by JC at 4:42 PM
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