What is art?

[[TNT] Sonic Goo]

Duchamp, Picasso, Mondriaan, Malevitch, Pollock, Klimt, Bacon, all have been dead for decades or more. But I don't see them falling in stature. And I don't see any figurative artists from the era being reappraised either.

 

It's the 21st century. Modernism, Cubism, Dadaism, Abstract Expressionism, even Pop are ancient history. They've taken their places in the history books next to impressionism, renaissance, romanticism, pre-rafaelites, etc. etc. It's not like someone's going to come around and say wait a minute, we've been doing it all wrong. Let's go back to just before impressionism and continue from there. If you did, you'd probably still end up in more or less the same place.

 

Because even someone as revolutionary as Van Gogh did build on the tradition of people like Frans Hals. There are clear, logical lines of development like that all through history. Nothing comes from nothing.

[RXS]

I'm not much of an artist or an art critic so take what I say with a grain of salt ...

 

Most of what I see above is not art, but rather creative projects. I see someone wondering what it would look like if you wrapped an island beach in pink material, much like a child might wonder what a swimming pool full of green jello would look like....or a college frat member might wonder what a swimming pool full of KY Jelly and bikini coeds would look like(but I digress). It may be a unique thought, but is it really art? Does an abstract thought conjured in someones imagination and brought to reality really art?

 

To me, art should have a purpose where both the creator and viewer are inspired...emphasis on the latter. Either way, there has to be a connection.

 

Most people, given the resources, can wrap a tree in cellophane, stick poles in the ground and drape sheets from them, etc. as where most people cannot paint a picturesque landscape or even a simple bowl of fruit with any degree of accuracy.

[[FF5]Knix]

Exactly RXS. Children should be taught the classics before the contemporary. While Picasso may be known to the average "Joe/Jane" (also he died only 33 years ago not 100 years ago), I would be confident to say that you go up to 100 people on the street, and they will not recognize the names of the other "artists" you mention.

 

Art is a talent. In the world of liberal thinkers, everything is art. A spilled drink, a box, a animal submerged in formaldihide. Yes true Goo, nothing does not come from nothing, however using your examples of art, something has very often turned into nothing.

 

Interesting article I read in the NY Times yesterday. You will have to register (it's free).

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/arts/design/19draw.html

 

[RXS]

Good article.

[Sly]

Street Performers/Photographers

 

http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html

 

 

[[TNT] Sonic Goo]

Some would say art is what you nail to the wall...

 

 

As Blackadder said to the bishop of Bath and Wells: Nicely framed, if I say so myself!