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What is art?

What is art?. Dr Tan Wee Hoe. Prologue. Imagine one day we are visited by friendly, curious and highly intelligent aliens who are keen to learn about human civilisation ... How would you go about trying to explain to the aliens the difference between art and non-art?

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What is art?

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  1. What is art? Dr Tan Wee Hoe

  2. Prologue • Imagine one day we are visited by friendly, curious and highly intelligent aliens who are keen to learn about human civilisation... • How would you go about trying to explain to the aliens the difference between art and non-art? • How would you try to convince them the value of art?

  3. Which of the following would you classify as art? Give reasons for your choice.

  4. What is art? “Art is what you can get away with.” Andy Warhol, 1928 – 87 “Art is a human activity, whose purpose is the transmission of the highest and best feelings to which men have attained.” Leo Tolstoy, 1828 – 1910 “Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth—at least the truth is given to us to understand.” Pablo Picasso, 1881 - 1973

  5. What is art? Possible criteria • A work of art must be man-made. • The intentions of the artist • The quality of the work • The response of spectators

  6. Art work must be man-made:

  7. The intentions of the artist • Something is a work of art if it is made by someone with the intention of evoking an aesthetic response in the audience. • It is a result of conscious design rather than random activity. • Differ from natural objects. • It should not be made with a practical end in mind, but simply with the intention of pleasing or provoking people. • Differ from everyday objects

  8. Art work must be intended by the artist and must not be made practical:

  9. Criticisms of the intention criterion • The intentions of the creator are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for something to be a work of art. • They are not necessary because something that was not originally intended as art may now be treated as such; and • They are not sufficient because something that is intended as art might simply be junk. • E.g. lesson learnt from the Dutch Government

  10. Quality of the work • Closely connected to the idea of skill. • We expect artists to have high level of technical competence. • A work of art should not be something that a person with no talent or training in the arts could have made. • Associated with the idea of beauty • Beautiful art is produced by painting beautiful objects, or • By revealing the beauty in everyday objects.

  11. Quality of the work • A great work of art is a perfect marriage of form and content. • Content: what the work of art depicts, e.g. a face, a landscape, or a bowl of fruit. • Form: how the work of art is put together , e.g. unity, order, rhythm, balance, proportion, harmony and symmetry. • A great deal of modern art seems less concerned to produce beautiful things which please the senses than to shock or challenge the viewer. • Nonetheless, it should have some kind of quality which reflects the skill of its creator.

  12. Art work has some kind of quality reflects the skill of its creator:

  13. Criticisms of the quality criterion • Quality and skill seem to be neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for something to be a work of art. • It is not necessary because works such as Picasso’s Bull’s Head are original but do not require much skill; and • It is not sufficient because kitsch (any form of clichéd art) and forgeries may require skill but are hardly interesting works of art.

  14. Responses of spectators • A work of art requires an appreciative spectator in order to complete it. • But which spectators it should appeal to? • The general public • Prefer the familiar to the strange and content to form • Have often been hostile to new artistic movements • Many artists have had little time for their opinions. • The expert opinion help spectators to • Decide which art works available are worth the time and attention; • See things in a work of art that spectators might otherwise have overlooked.

  15. So, what is art? • “Art is what is found in an art gallery or treated by experts as a work of art”. • “Everything is art.” • The word ‘art’ is in danger of losing its meaning because it no longer distinguishes some things from other things. • Instead, “everything can be looked at from an aesthetic point of view”. • When something is put in an art gallery • Stop looking at it as a purely functional object • This might (or might not) set in motion the wheels of thought and feeling. • Just because something is in an art gallery does not necessarily mean that it is worthy of our interest.

  16. Inexhaustibility • Every time you come back to it you discover new things in it. • Great works of art stand the test of time and speak across generations and cultures. • The winnowing effects of time act as a kind of ideal spectator helping us to distinguish enduring art from art which is merely fashionable.

  17. Reflexion time (10 minutes) • Up to this moment, what do you think art is? • How would you define art? • How do you feel about art? • Write down your reflexion

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