1st December 2005, 9:20 AM
Unfortunately it will never be clear as it's entirely based in opinion. Upbringing, education, life experiences, daily routines such as hobbies or work, sexual prefrences, etc all culminate in to a pot of judgement that is passed on anything we come in to contact with through our inherent inquisetive nature.
Art can be placed in easy to understand catagories, I could state that art only exists when it is something that the majority agrees upon as art. This is widely used as a catalyst to pronounce art. Societal standard dictates that the majority is correct even if the outcome is immoral or wrong when compared to other opinions formed by a majority in another culture or even time frame. We see this all the time through history; some of the most beautiful works of art were condemned as being pornographic up until the majority of those who hold that opinion were educated otherwise.
Then it can get really confusing when trying to catagorize th ideal of art with things like ancient artifacts. Now, the age of the object dictates its worth, no matter what it is, even a small statue made of common minerals that shows a man hitting his wife is 'priceless' and is auctioned off to museums around the world, the highest bidder getting the rights to display the priceless artifact in its halls even though the actual object shows something that makes us uncomfortable or could even be seen as wrong or immoral by the majority of people who will see it and, is made of worthless materials to boot. But antiquity, the fact that an object of hundreds or thousands of years has survived this long intact rules over all conceptions of worth. Therfore we could hypothosize that the age of an object is directly proportional to its artistic value... but that's not true at all.
truely a masterpiece of a celebrated painter of which he spent months or years in its creation is more worthy than a 10,000 year old arrowhead... right? Again, opinion of the individual takes presidence over all authority of art. In Japanese culture, tradition takes presidence; so traditional art is always worth more than modern art, even if they're made by the same person (within the same time frame). But thankfully, there are groups of 'radicals' who disagree with the culture and protest that the art carries the same value and should be embraced.
So then, it's a matter of opinion... but who carries the stronger opinion? Opinions are usually a stab at truth, when all the facts aren't widely known an opinion can carry us closer to finding the real meaning to something. We guage opinions from people based on who they are, if your friend is a mechanic who works on cars, you'd go to him to ask him his opinion on your car. But you wouldn't go to him to ask him his opinion on clothing styles or government politics, you know his opinion wouldn't carry alot of weight.
So since opinions are formulated to be truth seeking views, we can see that a piece of art with more thought and time put in to it stays in our culture longer and becomes widely accepted because of its depth and the fact that the opinions formulated are a reflection of that depth.
Putting thought and time in to something is the difference between a successful piece of art and a forgotten one. Unfortunately as we progress in our iconic representation of the world around us and the infinite possibilities of that representation we can find ourselves lost in the clouded and confusing world of artistic freedom and imagination.
You may see a disgusting sculpture of a man nailed to an ornate post, bleeding to death in his final moments. A monument to pain and torture; but it is viewed as salvation, as a figure head of sacrifice for the love of God. Extremely confusing, but artistic freedom and imagination is used to convey deeper meanings this way. And this piece of art is a construct of the teachings from the bible, so if you didnt know or understand the meanings of this art or why it was created, the more research you did in to the art would shed immense amounts of knowledge and hostory, meaning the more you learn about it, the more meaning it has. Which is not true for all art.
So should we only celebrate the art that sheds more meaning in to our opinions? The only things to be viewed as art are things that continue to grow inwards as you probe its meaning? The answer might be yes if you look at popular culture, but it's not. We use this mentality when watching movies or reading a book. But what about a tree? A simple tree, nothing spectacular, it has not been manufactured or designed by any one, it does not gain opinion or meaning except for its scientific purpose of existence in the flow of life on Earth... oh :D
Now suddenly, the existence of an object in its most simple form holds more beauty than anything man can offer through his imagination. A simple nude woman, flawed, imperfect, worn, gives us a glimpse in to nature's pure design of perfection that to this day is not totally understood even by the top minds; the height of design that is so unbelievably amazing that it goes beyond our comprehension of how something like this simple unexplained thing could even exist - to this day we cannot find answers to how parts of it work or function. It is simply beyond us, and that why it deserves our highest respect, but now i'm ranting.
Art can be placed in easy to understand catagories, I could state that art only exists when it is something that the majority agrees upon as art. This is widely used as a catalyst to pronounce art. Societal standard dictates that the majority is correct even if the outcome is immoral or wrong when compared to other opinions formed by a majority in another culture or even time frame. We see this all the time through history; some of the most beautiful works of art were condemned as being pornographic up until the majority of those who hold that opinion were educated otherwise.
Then it can get really confusing when trying to catagorize th ideal of art with things like ancient artifacts. Now, the age of the object dictates its worth, no matter what it is, even a small statue made of common minerals that shows a man hitting his wife is 'priceless' and is auctioned off to museums around the world, the highest bidder getting the rights to display the priceless artifact in its halls even though the actual object shows something that makes us uncomfortable or could even be seen as wrong or immoral by the majority of people who will see it and, is made of worthless materials to boot. But antiquity, the fact that an object of hundreds or thousands of years has survived this long intact rules over all conceptions of worth. Therfore we could hypothosize that the age of an object is directly proportional to its artistic value... but that's not true at all.
truely a masterpiece of a celebrated painter of which he spent months or years in its creation is more worthy than a 10,000 year old arrowhead... right? Again, opinion of the individual takes presidence over all authority of art. In Japanese culture, tradition takes presidence; so traditional art is always worth more than modern art, even if they're made by the same person (within the same time frame). But thankfully, there are groups of 'radicals' who disagree with the culture and protest that the art carries the same value and should be embraced.
So then, it's a matter of opinion... but who carries the stronger opinion? Opinions are usually a stab at truth, when all the facts aren't widely known an opinion can carry us closer to finding the real meaning to something. We guage opinions from people based on who they are, if your friend is a mechanic who works on cars, you'd go to him to ask him his opinion on your car. But you wouldn't go to him to ask him his opinion on clothing styles or government politics, you know his opinion wouldn't carry alot of weight.
So since opinions are formulated to be truth seeking views, we can see that a piece of art with more thought and time put in to it stays in our culture longer and becomes widely accepted because of its depth and the fact that the opinions formulated are a reflection of that depth.
Putting thought and time in to something is the difference between a successful piece of art and a forgotten one. Unfortunately as we progress in our iconic representation of the world around us and the infinite possibilities of that representation we can find ourselves lost in the clouded and confusing world of artistic freedom and imagination.
You may see a disgusting sculpture of a man nailed to an ornate post, bleeding to death in his final moments. A monument to pain and torture; but it is viewed as salvation, as a figure head of sacrifice for the love of God. Extremely confusing, but artistic freedom and imagination is used to convey deeper meanings this way. And this piece of art is a construct of the teachings from the bible, so if you didnt know or understand the meanings of this art or why it was created, the more research you did in to the art would shed immense amounts of knowledge and hostory, meaning the more you learn about it, the more meaning it has. Which is not true for all art.
So should we only celebrate the art that sheds more meaning in to our opinions? The only things to be viewed as art are things that continue to grow inwards as you probe its meaning? The answer might be yes if you look at popular culture, but it's not. We use this mentality when watching movies or reading a book. But what about a tree? A simple tree, nothing spectacular, it has not been manufactured or designed by any one, it does not gain opinion or meaning except for its scientific purpose of existence in the flow of life on Earth... oh :D
Now suddenly, the existence of an object in its most simple form holds more beauty than anything man can offer through his imagination. A simple nude woman, flawed, imperfect, worn, gives us a glimpse in to nature's pure design of perfection that to this day is not totally understood even by the top minds; the height of design that is so unbelievably amazing that it goes beyond our comprehension of how something like this simple unexplained thing could even exist - to this day we cannot find answers to how parts of it work or function. It is simply beyond us, and that why it deserves our highest respect, but now i'm ranting.