What is art?

[Randy]

"What is art?"
Here's the problem. One of the purposes of art is to evoke some sort of feeling or promote a sort of discussion. So maybe a piece of art is supposed to be a metaphor for...I dunno, "Man's reliance on money" with a painting of a noose made of dollar bills.
The debate goes something like "I don't think money is what kills you." Followed by "But money is what we waste our life striving for." So on and so forth, a debate arises, the piece of art is successful at stirring up a discussion that transcends beyond its very canvas. Art accomplished.
Mind that such is just an example.
When somebody hangs up what another considers a piece of mindless dreck, like some nonsensical marker scrawlings on an Arbys napkin, their own mind may immediately conclude "this rushed travesty has no place being called art. This isn't art!" That's all fine and good, but only as long as it stays in their head.
When somebody waves a finger and complains out loud "This isn't art," a phenomenon occurs at that very moment right then and there. That non-art...just became art. Right there. Boom.
It evoked a comparison, a thought, a response within the viewer. The piece is successful at stirring up a discussion that transcends beyond its very canvas.
Art accomplished.
It's the strangest thing. A picture that none consider art...suddenly becomes art when somebody admits it out loud.

Your thoughts? What is art, in your opinion?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

That is so simple to answer:

"Art is in the eye of the beholder".

Thats a simplistic view that says a lot. I agree.

 

[DrLeftover]

It is easier to define what it is NOT than to say what it is.

To me, "ART" takes some skill to produce.

Standing back and throwing paint at a canvas, does not require any skill to speak of, and so the resulting product is NOT art.

http://www.cjshane.com/saturday-art-review.html

I don't care if somebody is willing to pay for the 'painting' or not. It is NOT a "work of art".

If it is, then the floor under the paint mixer at the hardware store should be in the Louvre.

Neither is submerging a crucifix in a bottle of urine making Art.

And so on.

The below, for example, takes some talent, and time, and Effort to produce, and the result is Art.

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