What is art?
Art is an idea, thought or feeling embodied in something physical, or tangible. It can be expressed in many ways: paintings, sculptures, songs, and poems, among others. There is no such a thing as a yardstick to measure what is art and what isn’t. The ones who decide (for themselves) between good art and bad art are just the spectators, who can disagree with each other and never reach consensus. I dare to say that art is subjective; it depends on the likes and dislikes of the individual. Art isn’t striving for democracy. Art just is. The valuation of it, as it happens in economics, is personal. For example, I know that some people hate modern art and will pay a lot of money to get a Van Gogh, or vice versa.
Independent of these valuations, all pieces of art “were made for a definite occasion and a definite purpose which were in the artist’s mind when he set to work” – E.H. Gombrich. I found that shocking, because I wasn’t aware that actually creating art takes a lot of time, effort and thinking. Also, the artist is doing something in order to express something not merely for decoration in a museum. The works serve a purpose, an ideal, the artists want to achieve an end through it. Art is no less than science. I can tenaciously say that science is art and art is science, they don’t exclude each other. They go hand by hand, and none of them would be complete without the other. They are connected; there aren’t sharp boundaries between them. As Edward Wilson says, “The arts, like the sciences, start in the real world. They then reach out to all possible worlds, and finally to all conceivable worlds”. They both reach for something that pushes forward humanity; they seek for the impossible and make it possible.
A very powerful and essential concept of art is imagination and vision, once I heard, that there’s nothing scarier than to face a white canvas. An artist is always challenging himself; he imagines what can be done and makes it come alive with paint, stone or words. He ought to have the same vision and drive an entrepreneur has, risking him by exploring unknown venues and knowing how to handle the vicissitudes he encounters in the process.
Throughout the centuries, artists have strived to attain harmony and convey a message that transcends in their work. They are representing their understanding and perspective about their surroundings. They tell a history, and we can all get it differently. Only the artist will know exactly what he wanted to say. Every work of art has more meaning than we can imagine. There are influences, ideas, feelings and thoughts behind them, not only from the artist but also from the environment and era they are living in. It makes me think about the trends that marked periods of history, why did the artists paint a certain way? Why did the ideologies affect the way of thinking? It may be that we are not entirely influenced but part of us is influenced in one way or another. In a lot of pieces of art, the artist is voicing what’s happening in a very hidden way. The spectators don’t get it all of a sudden, they have to analyze and look beyond what they see.
A specific example is the moral and intellectual climate that took place in the environment when Dalí, Buñuel, and other remarkable artists painted, filmed or wrote. Their creations reflected how the Theory of Relativity by Einstein influenced them, and they expressed in many ways how time is relative and different to each individual. Another example would be the fact that Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Pablo Neruda lived in the same era, and they shared ideas or conceptions about the world, that were expressed through art or literature. What strikes me the most is that they shared values and were influenced negatively or positively by the events that were happening around them.
In art, everything is taken into account: politics, economics, culture, world-views and the current mind-set of society. I’m amazed on how much history is documented thanks to art. Also, art has also taken an active role in revolutions and strikes against the established and the already set way of thinking. Everything, at the end, it’s interconnected. All fields belong in a network, in which everything alters or has an impact on everything else.
Art takes place in time; therefore, art is always changing. It’s a dynamic process, and everyone is part of it. Art moves with the current ideas that are dominating the current understanding or perception of the world, it can go with them or against them. It really depends on the artist. I think that Aristotle gives a very nice and well-thought purpose of art in the quote below:
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”. –Aristotle
Art is the expression of what’s inside the mind of another person; it’s ideas, understanding, thoughts, perception and feelings. It’s a representation of our inner self. We can all create art in our own way; each of us has a unique style. What happens in our mind can be embodied in something that can be seen, shared and communicated with other human beings. Every piece of artwork leads us to a voyage of discovery, not only in the work itself but also in everything that’s behind. The meaning of art goes beyond the physical appearance; it entails a profound sphere of our human nature.
Independent of these valuations, all pieces of art “were made for a definite occasion and a definite purpose which were in the artist’s mind when he set to work” – E.H. Gombrich. I found that shocking, because I wasn’t aware that actually creating art takes a lot of time, effort and thinking. Also, the artist is doing something in order to express something not merely for decoration in a museum. The works serve a purpose, an ideal, the artists want to achieve an end through it. Art is no less than science. I can tenaciously say that science is art and art is science, they don’t exclude each other. They go hand by hand, and none of them would be complete without the other. They are connected; there aren’t sharp boundaries between them. As Edward Wilson says, “The arts, like the sciences, start in the real world. They then reach out to all possible worlds, and finally to all conceivable worlds”. They both reach for something that pushes forward humanity; they seek for the impossible and make it possible.
A very powerful and essential concept of art is imagination and vision, once I heard, that there’s nothing scarier than to face a white canvas. An artist is always challenging himself; he imagines what can be done and makes it come alive with paint, stone or words. He ought to have the same vision and drive an entrepreneur has, risking him by exploring unknown venues and knowing how to handle the vicissitudes he encounters in the process.
Throughout the centuries, artists have strived to attain harmony and convey a message that transcends in their work. They are representing their understanding and perspective about their surroundings. They tell a history, and we can all get it differently. Only the artist will know exactly what he wanted to say. Every work of art has more meaning than we can imagine. There are influences, ideas, feelings and thoughts behind them, not only from the artist but also from the environment and era they are living in. It makes me think about the trends that marked periods of history, why did the artists paint a certain way? Why did the ideologies affect the way of thinking? It may be that we are not entirely influenced but part of us is influenced in one way or another. In a lot of pieces of art, the artist is voicing what’s happening in a very hidden way. The spectators don’t get it all of a sudden, they have to analyze and look beyond what they see.
A specific example is the moral and intellectual climate that took place in the environment when Dalí, Buñuel, and other remarkable artists painted, filmed or wrote. Their creations reflected how the Theory of Relativity by Einstein influenced them, and they expressed in many ways how time is relative and different to each individual. Another example would be the fact that Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Pablo Neruda lived in the same era, and they shared ideas or conceptions about the world, that were expressed through art or literature. What strikes me the most is that they shared values and were influenced negatively or positively by the events that were happening around them.
In art, everything is taken into account: politics, economics, culture, world-views and the current mind-set of society. I’m amazed on how much history is documented thanks to art. Also, art has also taken an active role in revolutions and strikes against the established and the already set way of thinking. Everything, at the end, it’s interconnected. All fields belong in a network, in which everything alters or has an impact on everything else.
Art takes place in time; therefore, art is always changing. It’s a dynamic process, and everyone is part of it. Art moves with the current ideas that are dominating the current understanding or perception of the world, it can go with them or against them. It really depends on the artist. I think that Aristotle gives a very nice and well-thought purpose of art in the quote below:
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”. –Aristotle
Art is the expression of what’s inside the mind of another person; it’s ideas, understanding, thoughts, perception and feelings. It’s a representation of our inner self. We can all create art in our own way; each of us has a unique style. What happens in our mind can be embodied in something that can be seen, shared and communicated with other human beings. Every piece of artwork leads us to a voyage of discovery, not only in the work itself but also in everything that’s behind. The meaning of art goes beyond the physical appearance; it entails a profound sphere of our human nature.