Art

[vnsplshr]

If someone goes to a bar, draws something on a napkin, crumples it before anyone sees it, and flushes it down the toilet... was it art?

If Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa and a second painting of unknown subject matter, and left the second locked in a closet, never to be seen... was it art?

Is the work of Thomas Kinkade art

Comments

[david_deacon]

Of course it is art. Art isn't a function of the number of people who SEE something. If only ONE person saw the art, would it still be art? How about ten, or a hundred, or a thousand? Is some scrawl posted on the Internet more "art" because 60 million people see it than a Picasso in a vault that is only seen by its owner?

[vnsplshr]

Agreed.

I crossed paths with someone who seemed to think the term "art" relied heavily on some type of message being both conveyed AND received.

[david_deacon]

some type of message being both conveyed AND received

That's communication, not art. Say that I'm a sculptor, and I create several statues in the Greek Classical style, but I never show them to anyone else. Have I not "created art"? Furthermore, have I not "created art" when I compose a poem in my own head even if I never write it down or recite it to anyone?

Also, what if I show my creation to another person (or many other people) and he shrugs and says "that's not art"?

Art is the aesthetic bringing-into-form. It's not even necessarily embodying it in a physical form, just a mental form. That's the creation, and that's the art.

Communication is what you do when you talk about what art is. This thread is communication, not art. Art can be too much about theory-of-art and not enough about art-in-itself. See Tom Wolfe's The Painted Word.

[david_deacon]

Also, vide Thoams Kinkade: it's art, all right--but I reserve the right not to like it, if I please.

[vnsplshr]

Too true.

[vnsplshr]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Pretend nobody saw any of those steps.

[vnsplshr]

According to the fella who prompted this post, since your ears were the only receivers... no, it wasn't music.