What separates art from things that isn’t art?
In: Other
I’d say purpose. If something is intended to be art, it’s art. If it is intended to be something else, it is not. This doesn’t mean it’s exclusive though because you can intend for something that has a purpose to be art.
Perspective and opinion. Anything can be art if someone views it as such. Perhaps you mean good art vs bad art?
In terms of what gets into the MOMA, You’d need to get in with organizers for art expos.
In terms of creativity, what you make or what other people make that you find beauty in, is art. Paintings, sculpture, furniture, architecture, tv, movies, music, videos, music videos, video games, essays, the rust on the backside of a license plate after you launch a firework off of it, essays about the rust on the backsi…; if you find meaning or a personal narrative in something, boom, ART.
It’s really an “eye of the beholder” thing. The Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp took a urinal and wrote on it in 1917 and called it art. He titled it “[The Fountain](https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573).” Every new art movement seems to have its backlash and critics — there are people who think Andy Warhol and Pop Art don’t count as art, and people who think Jackson Pollock’s art isn’t art. The Expressionist, Cubist, and Surrealist movements all had people clamoring that they were most assuredly Not Art.
An amateur’s watercolor landscapes? If someone enjoys them and takes pleasure in them, they’re art, even if they aren’t on the level of Georgia O’Keeffe’s landscapes. Paint-By-Numbers and those flocked velvet Elvises? I wouldn’t call them art, but *someone* would.
Then there’s the stuff that’s outside of the traditional sphere of art. Couture fashion is art, but is fast fashion? Someone still has to design the pieces. The plating and exquisite blend of flavors in a Michelin-star restaurant is arguably art, but if the best meal you’ve ever had came from a mom and pop diner, is that art? Professional photographers are artists, but these days anyone with an iPhone can edit their photos to look clean, well-lit, and well-framed. r/AccidentalRenaissance is a treasure trove of artistic photos taken by amateurs. A child’s clay sculpture is an expression of creativity, and absolutely art in the eyes of their parents, but not “art” in the same way that the Pieta is.
So again, it’s really down to how the viewer experiences it. Art is a very subjective experience, and there’s no single way to define it.
You’re essentially looking for a definition of art. Often the definition is something like “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination”. So basically anything humans have created. Dog poo or a fallen tree wouldn’t be considered art under that definition but of course you could ask why not. Ultimately anything can be art.
Something is art if the artist decides it is art. But the purpose of art is to provoke an emotional response in the viewer (listener, reader, etc).
It the emotions it provokes may be negative emotions, and may vary by the viewer.
Art is not intended to educate or inform, although it can do that also.
Thanks all! TIL
Latest Answers