What is "art"

[Randy]

Do you think there is a limit to what is "art" and what isn't?

How should we decide what art actually is? /and what is just garbage?

Some say art is about communication. An artist starts out with an idea, an intention, that they want to communicate to the viewer. If they have succeeded, then it is art. But is it more complicated than that?

 

[.Xstinct]

It's more simple then that:

Art is in the eye of the beholder ...well in my eyes anyway.

 

[DrLeftover]

At one time, and to some degree it still is, THIS was defined as "art"

It is the infamous "Piss Christ" by an 'artist' named Erevis, the photo of a small plastic crucifix submerged in a bottle of urine.


This was called art.

What it means is that any damned fool thing you want to call "art", IS art.


More on the image:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/sep/28/andres-serrano-piss-christ-new-york

 

[DrLeftover]

And then you have

A realistic-looking statue of a man sleepwalking in his underwear near the center of Wellesley College has created a stir among the women on campus, especially as more than 100 students at the all-women’s college signed a petition asking administrators to remove it.

The statue, called Sleepwalker, is part of an art exhibit featuring sculptor Tony Matelli at the college's Davis Museum. The exhibit, New Gravity, features sculptures that are often reversed, upended or atomized.

http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/wellesley/2014/02/realistic_statue_of_man_in_his_underwear_at_wellesley_college_sparks_controversy.html

 

[Evil Eye]

Creepy. Very well done though.

 

[Sinon]

This is apparently art.

"Serving Suggestion" by Tim Noble.

Alternatively, (NSFW)

Spoiler

"Double Header, Double Pleasure" also by Tim Noble. I'm not sure what's more disturbing; that this guy owned around 40 dildos in order to make this sculpture/shadow art, or that this guy bought around 40 dildos in order to make this sculpture/shadow art.

 

[Evil Eye]

It was presumably the latter. Weird, but kinda cool... in a way.

 

[DrLeftover]

Maybe some things need to have a sign on them that say "This garbage is actually art":

20 February 2014
A cleaner has mistakenly thrown away contemporary artworks meant to be part of an exhibition in southern Italy.

Works made out of newspaper and cardboard, and cookie pieces scattered across the floor as part of Sala Murat's display were thrown out.

Lorenzo Roca, from cleaning firm Chiarissima, said the unnamed cleaner was "just doing her job".

He added his firm's insurance would cover the value of the art, estimated to be around 10,000 euros (£8,200).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26270260

 

[Sinon]

I'm starting to think that becoming an artist would be a lucrative plan for my life. I could just shit on the floor and people would pay money for it.

 

[DrLeftover]

I'm starting to think that becoming an artist would be a lucrative plan for my life. I could just shit on the floor and people would pay money for it.

You're too late

December 13, 2007 23:38:37 by camerakid400

LONDON - An artist is inviting Londoners to come face-to-face with the wretched labour of one of India's lowest castes - by filling an art gallery with 21 big blocks of human excrement.

The monoliths are the brainchild of Santiago Sierra, whose previous work includes pumping a former German synagogue full of poisonous car exhaust (visitors wore gas masks) and an attempt to write the word "Submission" in giant, flaming letters near the U.S.-Mexico border.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1939273/posts


More:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2007/dec/04/art

 

[Evil Eye]

I'm starting to think that becoming an artist would be a lucrative plan for my life.

I've thought the same thing a couple of times.