What is Art?

Is it art?

Welling up from human insight and intuition, art is larger than any definition. Art helps us communicate with others.

Knadinsky-Yellow Red BlueWassily Kandinsky: Yellow Red Blue

Art experiences can be visual, performative, musical, conceptual. For this web site art is mostly considered as a visual medium: painting, drawing, sculpture.

Art is Necessary?

Humans have a tendency to give physical form to things we feel, think and imagine. We don't ask whether this is necessary; we simply proceed to do so without troubling ourselves. Human culture has throughout its history made objects and images to express our feelings - it becomes part of our society. We can say our handiwork and rituals address a need for communication and spiritual expression. For example, church art and architecture fill both a spiritual and physical need.

At its best art can

  • express important values;
  • meet practical needs;
  • give form to spiritual expression.

The creative process and the power of art objects are valued more than the simple object.

"The arts foster the development of our inner world - the intuitive, emotional, spiritual and creative aspects of being human." (Preble, 4)

Our languages, our arts, our traditions and beliefs are at the core of who we are.

"Art is what you do."

~ Fidel Danieli, Art Instructor

Purpose, Function

Communicating Information

stained-glassstained glass in church

Art can make a lasting impression on broad swaths of society. Art informs literate and nonliterate people around the world. One way art is used for mass communication is through religious art. Churches, for example, depict stories form the Bible to reiterate its stories to their congregations and to the public in general. Stained glass windows in churches are a good example.

Art for day-to-day living

Everyday objects and speedy cars can be made to be appealing to the eye as well as to serve a function. Well-designed furniture, silverware, and cell phones can bring pleasure to the user as well as enhance comfort and utility. How much do artistic embellishments enhance the value of everyday objects?

ring
high-heels
Bugatti

Things people make are subject to artistic considerations in the creating process. As more and more objects are made for society in factories, print shops, and construction sites their visual form is balanced against their functionality.  Professional artists and designers make decisions that will influence the lives of those around them: architects, clothing designers, hair stylists. Consumers make choices about how they want to look and how they want to live.

Art for exploring spirituality (art for spiritual sustenance) [art to feed your faith]

Art can easily have a spiritual component. The making of the world's earliest carvings and cave paintings. What prompted prehistoric peoples to carve, draw, and paint? Perhaps it was a belief in images being able to influence or control the prey of hunters. Were they recording events? Was simply the urge to create what inspired them?

cave artancient cave art
StonehengeStonehenge, England | a ritual structure built by stone-age humans.

A series of stones surrounding a central stone, identified as an altar, is the main design element of a religious or scientific function. A quest for understanding unified a community to construct an ordered series of monumental pillars and stones whose placement align with the equinoxes and solstices of the sun. Was this religion or science or both?

Art for cultural and personal expression

Art reveals a culture, or a person. Stonehenge reveals something about the people living in England about 2,000 years ago, though much remains a mystery. Self-portrait paintings by Rembrandt reveal something of his personality, but not everything.

Rembrandt-young
Rembrandt-old
YOng Soon Min ~ Dwelling, 1994Yong Soon Min ~ Dwelling

The sense of self can also be expressed in mixed media, as by Yong Soon Min. Originally from a Korean village, born in the early 1950s, moved to California, and grew up in the USA. Her artwork expresses a dual culture, shown through her juxtaposing a traditional Korean-style dress with books, maps, and pictures.

Many people in the USA were born elsewhere and then became Americans. This artwork describes the status of many 20th and 21st century Americans.

Who will occupy the dress? Where have they traveled from?

Art for social and political purposes

Another way for art to communicate is with public, political art - in an attempt to influence public opinion or to criticize values.

3-de-Mayo-GoyaFrancisco de Goya ~ El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid

Six years after the 1808 incident of Napoleonic aggression, Francisco de Goya memorialized the Spanish resistance in a painting showing how pitifully they were executed. de Goya departed from conventional themes of painting, such as religious art, morals, and known depictions of war.

Another example of art exposing the horrors of war is that of Guernica, by Pablo Picasso.

Art for visual delight

Art can be pleasing on its own, without being associated with a particular person or historical event. Such art is often abstract and can put the viewer in a rapt, delighted mood.

Islamic-art

Colored mosaic tile makes a dazzling decorative display. Much of Islamic art avoids representation of humans or animals; hence much of Islamic design is abstract.

Sheikh Loft AllahSheikh Loft Allah
Islamic ArchIslamic arch design

Avoiding figural representation results in abstract design, even in  monumental architecture.

Pollock-Blue-PolesBlue Poles by Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock's drip paintings are abstract expressionist. Pollock too avoided figurative representation. He challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush by laying his canvas on the ground and applying paint by drips and squirts, using non-traditional painting tools, for example, sticks and a basting syringe.

quilt



A quilt with an abstract pattern is also a form of art. Some people may think of visual interest as the first function of art, but the quilt will also keep you warm on a cold night.

fill-in Worksheet: What is Art?

Going further ...

1. Write a paragraph to define art.

2. Discuss with your classmates:

Is this art ...?

  • sculpture
  • painting
  • singing
  • tattoos
  • graffiti
  • a beautiful sunset
  • dirty dishes

3. Write a paragraph to answer: Where do you find art in your everyday lives?

4. Write a paragraph: How can art make your life better?

5. Create a dictionary entry for the noun "art."

See also: Banksy

(Banksy is evolving! Do a Google search!)

Preble, Duane and Preble, Sarah. Artforms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2004.