What is Art?

What is art? If you had never held a paintbrush before and you painted an unrecognizable picture of a horse, is that art? What if you are a very established painter and painted the exact same unrecognizable horse and named it ‘Abstract Horse in Blue’?

 

Here is a definition of art from the Merriam-Webster dictionary as it concerns art that would be in an art gallery or show. 

 

: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

// the art of painting landscapes

also : works so produced

// a gallery for modern art

 

It seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?  But somehow it isn’t. If you have plenty of time and enjoy philosophical conversation with a hint of zeal, ask an artist or art museum patron how they can tell the difference between art and non-art.  

 

One distinction I’ve heard quite a lot is that art is defined by intention. So a spider web is not art, but a photo of a spider web is art.  Sorry spider.  I can’t really argue with this. Nature is more complicated and beautiful than anything a human can create. However, it was not intentionally created, whether to emit an emotion or not.  

 

Which is another argument in the definition of art. Art is something created to intentionally cause a particular emotion. Not just something created intentionally, but something created with an intention behind it. In spite of what I just said I can’t really get behind this one.  Sometimes art is created simply for the act of creation, not necessarily with the intention of bringing out a particular emotion in others. What can’t you create art with a particular place in mind, without deciding in advance how you want your audience to feel when they see it? Art can be created without even intending it to be seen by an audience. 

 

I was told something is only art if there is a story behind it and someone says it is. For example, an absinthe pipe may be a mass-produced glass thing designed with a detachable straw to drink absinthe out of. Interesting? Yes. Art? Nope. However, if a person takes that absinthe pipe, sets it on a pile of crumpled bills and junk mail, and says it’s a commentary on alcoholism in the current age, who can argue they are wrong? You can argue, but you can’t actually win the argument.

 

There’s one more facet of this I’d like you to consider. Can animals create art? Before you answer, take a look at this article. Scroll to the bottom for some examples of art created by animals in captivity. If you really want to throw a wrench in your thinking read the first few paragraphs, which talk about Bowerbirds who are the one animal known to create art in the wild. If you deem it to be art that is.

 

In my humble opinion art is in the eye of the beholder, and also in the eye of the creator.  If you believe something is art, then it is. To you at least. My opinion may be different, but it does not negate your opinion. 

 

What’s my final answer? There is no final conclusion and that is part of what makes this conversation so polarizing.

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