Poll: What is art?

[The Stonker]

Hey escapists, I was wondering.
When does something go from being just simply a craft and unto an artform?
Because when can we start calling something art?
Why this made me think was because I write poetry,stories,draw and things like that, so when do things start becoming art?

Escapists! What is art?

 

[Kortney]

The showcase of human creativity.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It isn't art until some pretentious douchebag says it is...

 

[NeedAUserName]

Art is something that makes you question what you know.
Art is beauty on canvas.
Art is depravity on canvas.

[/Art Snob]

 

[PunkyMcGee]

to me, art is what hits you pesonaly on an emotinal level.

 

[Max Goldfine]

"If i can do it, is it really art?" - Larry David

 

[Eumersian]

I believe art to be an expression of somebody's personal thoughts and ideas. Art doesn't have to push boundaries, nor does it have to be different from anybody else's art. It has to come from the soul. There has to be an almost animalistic desire to express something in particular, whatever it may be.

If somebody's art just so happens to sound like anything else, that doesn't make it any less of an art.

Now, the difference between "good" and "bad" art is entirely subjective. If somebody wants to walk around naked in the middle of town yelling "Where are my waters?!" and claiming that it's some artistic expression about something or other, so be it. But I doubt most people would like it. In fact, they may be taken to the hospital and put in the psych ward for evaluation. Good. Something must be wrong with that person, and the only thing that might be able to snap them back into reality are the horrors of modern medical care. That's just vulgar, and nobody wants to see it. But I guess that doesn't make it any less artistic, although being artistic doesn't make it any less messed up.

 

[Drake_Dercon]

Art is passion made life.
The difference between a picture and art is a passion for one's creation. A four-year-old can create a work of art where a professional artists couldn't simply because a four-year-old's scribblings often speak openly from the heart and interests of the child whereas the artist may just be looking to get paid. I think society has a bit of a confusion between pretty and beautiful. Pretty is pleasing to look upon, beautiful is a piece of the soul. Limbo is considered an "artsy" game because it is most certainly pretty. It may not be good-looking, but its art direction combined with movement and music make it provocative, compelling and fraught with dark undercurrents. It is most certainly thought-provoking, but is it truly art? Is it a truly beautiful game? That question can only be answered by the discovery of the intent of its creators.

Not to say that pretty things are bad, in fact, they're certainly much more fulfilling to experience, but beautiful things are much more fulfilling to create. I find fulfillment at its absolute peak to experience art with a balance, something that is both pretty and shows just a bit of emotional attachment, the stronger it is, the more detectable it is. The more detectable it is, the better.

 

[Lavi]

-_- Art is the act of adding significance to that which has none.

Everyone needs to seriously take a basic art course. Art ain't whatever the fuck you want it to be.

 

[the rye]

Considering there is a whole Philosophy dedicated to this question i doubt anyone will be solving this problem anytime soon.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Art is something that someone has made to portray emotion. If it doesn't make you feel emotion, it isn't art to you.

/canitbe'/thread'now?

 

[zehydra]

It isn't art until some pretentious douchebag says it is...

This. Art is an annoying word that is most often used to describe something that has some emotional connection, and is otherwise useless.

I don't know why we bother worrying about what people consider art to be though, since it really has no bearing on the enjoyability of things.

What really matters, is do you enjoy it? is it inspiring? does it express an emotional or intelligent message?

 

[Infinatex]

I have always believed art to be something that serves no other purpose then to just be.

 

[Torrasque]

What is art?

Baby don't paint me...
Don't paint me...
No more...

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Honestly, who cares? Can't we enjoy something without having to label it art?

 

[Atticus89]

Art is complicated.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

It isn't art until some pretentious douchebag says it is...

Yes. Especially with some of the...creativity... seen today.

Three crushed Starbucks coffee cups on a plaque. A Styrofoam ball supported by four nails.

Truly art.

 

[Gralian]

I won't try to contextualise what is defined as being art, but i will point you to Paul Cézanne, one of the pioneers of the impressionist movement. He really hated traditionalist classical art. He argued that it didn't matter that the paintings were technically proficient; they had become "the norm" and so mass produced by so many artists that they had lost all artistic inspiration. When he showed The Hanged Man at Auvers, he came under remarkable criticism. He used heavy contrasts and tones and only four main colours. But it was the very fact that he went against traditionalist values that made it so artistic. As Riviére once said, "it was like barbarians criticising the pantheon". The point was that because technically proficient paintings had become the norm, it was no longer artistic. For something to have artistic inspiration, it must draw from both traditionalist values but also expand upon it with a contemporary perspective that challenges or reflects the times. It has to have roots in that which came before it, but it must dare to break new grounds and be avant garde.

My £0.02

 

[ViaticalTarsier]

-_- Art is the act of adding significance to that which has none.

Everyone needs to seriously take a basic art course. Art ain't whatever the fuck you want it to be.

I freaking love that quote! I can't stand all the "anything is art" crowd.

To me art is paintings, sculptures, and useless architecture. Basically it has no use other than "look at me I'm pretty" and also that's why I don't consider movies, video games, books as art because they are actually created with another purpose whether it be to entertain or inform.