SoulPancake is a place to speak your mind, unload your questions, and figure out what it means to be human.
What do you think people mistake for 'art'?
121 RESPONSES | posted by SoulPancake 7 months ago | Life's Big Questions
“Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.”—Gilbert K. Chesterton
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The SP BrainLab (SoulPancake) Everywheresville, Earth
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WhiskeyRiver
- 2 months agoArt is anything that expresses something else.Created from deep within the artists mind and heart.Not something created on a machine,from a program.
googly
- 3 months agoPeople often mistake that content which is most popular for art. This is not to say that if it is not original, it is not art, but style clouds our judgement of art.
christ_oh_fur
- 3 months agoI put a lot of stock in originality when i'm judging something as art but that's just because of what's important to how I see myself. I don't want to be an imitator and so i look for that in others too. I do draw a line though. For instance Animal Collective is a very original sound but I think that barely constitutes music let alone art.
Also, there was no need for this discussion because I saw this on a Freshman girl's dorm wall:
"Art is what you get away with" - Andy Warhol
mch2k
- 3 months agoAs a co-financier of an Art Gallery I have had this discussion on more than one occasion yet no matter how much art I see or has gone through the doors of the gallery the question is still: What is Art?
and the answer is always the same: It is subjective.
There is a great documentary playing now called: Exit Through The Gift Shop
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/
Thierry Guetta is the the filmmaker and the subject. He decides to go out at night and films street artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy (I'm grossly paraphrasing)... after a while he stops just filming them and begins to become a street artist himself (under the moniker Mr. Brainwash) emulating the styles of his former (and superior subjects). He was so influenced by the movement he became a part of it... then out of nowhere, he puts up an installation in LA, basically ripping off everyone he had been following for the past 9 years!
People came and he made MILLIONS... he made up his pricing for his show on the fly (a big no-no in the art world) he didn't earn his reputation or his street cred he just threw every pop icon in a blender and silkscreened a copy of a copy of a copy of Warhol and Fairey... it was like he was putting a mirror up to the process of street art by ripping it off. Is that art?
It's subjective.
Anyway, minor digression. I believe that art belongs to the artist... If one makes a piece with intention of creating and can justify its thesis then for better or worse that artist created art.
I think a better question might be: What constitutes an art lover?
doghed
- 3 months agobodily fluids are not art.
chadwick
- 3 months agoLike morality, there does have to be an absolute good or truth in all of it. (Sorry relativists, George Ruskin nailed it on the head with "Greatness of Style") As @StacyALEXANDER mentioned, "since anything and everything can be art, depending on the artist's intent and/or concept." - what if Hitler considered the Holocaust to be his own artistic "David"? He was, after all, a failed artist.
And for the record, beauty is really not in the eye of the beholder - pick up an aesthetics book.
1PLANET1Ppl
- 3 months agoI agree with Chesterton, that "a line must be drawn somewhere". there are certain things I see that i know are not art, like poo in a can. For me its about creating something meaningful for me and my audience. As an artist I am also an explorer, a collector and a creator. I dont think my daily scribbles and random photos are art, they are research which I collect on a daily basis. It becomes art when that research finally solves some problem, or I get to a point where Im really communicating something meaningful and true. Because art is a language.
1PLANET1Ppl
- 3 months agoI agree with Chesterton, that "a line must be drawn somewhere". there are certain things I see that i know are not art, like poo in a can. For me its about creating something meaningful for me and my audience. As an artist I am also an explorer, a collector and a creator. I dont think my daily scribbles and random photos are art, they are research which I collect on a daily basis. It becomes art when that research finally solves some problem, or I get to a point where Im really communicating something meaningful and true. Because art is a language.
StacyALEXANDER
- 3 months agoI don't understand the question, since anything and everything can be art, depending on the artist's intent and/or concept.
xstex
- 6 months agoArt is in the eye of the beholder.
in_the_Awe
- 6 months agoArt is the communication between subject thinking about the object existing; each are individualistic under a general whole.
PopFreak
- 6 months agoArt is in the eye of the beholder. Depending on the way you look at things, & the way your personal judgment works is part of your interpritation of art. But your right, I dig graffiti. & velvet paintingss... eww. Lmfao.
mawiilu
- 6 months agoi think art has to say something, even if you do a simple doodle, if you are communicating with an audience then its art. in other words, i dont care how weird and obscure it is or how nice and technical it is, if youre not telling me anything i wont consider it art.
flickeringice
- 7 months agoI think it's not art if nobody gets anything out of it when they experience it. Although maybe that makes elevator music art, since it's supposed to relax you although sometimes it just annoys you. It should be something that changes the feeling of the area around you somehow.
reddishiva
- 7 months agoYou know how sometimes a movie is so bad that it's actually funny? Well, what comes after that is a movie that is sooo bad, that it's not even funny. Well, the same goes for art. Every once in a while you see something that is so bad it could be considered art. On rare occasions, however, you see something and it occurs to you that that thing is so, so horribly bad, not only is it not art, it's not even funny. And that occasion is a very sad one indeed.
rachaelsays
- 7 months agosome people go and take pictures of a tree with a regular digital camera. To me, that really isn't art.
eatmorefalafel
- 7 months agojust because you own a camera does not make you a photographer.
username22
- 7 months agophotos of shadows and close ups of grass shouldn't be called art.
Earthroot
- 7 months agoI think. Vomit is not art.
AbyssOfThought
- 7 months agoI think art is relative. There are many situations where an artist makes are and people see it as art. But there are also many situations where something might not necessarily have been created as art but can be considered as such none the less. Do you not see a beautiful sunset or hear the music of a chirping bird int he distance and deem it art? Natural and beautiful art? I feel like no matter what you make there will be someone somewhere who will consider it shit and there will be someone somewhere who will consider it art. To me hanging a urinal in a museum and sticking a soup can on a pedestal is not art. But een as I sit here typing and thinking about it I can see what was behind it and it's slowly changing my opinion. Coming up with strict categorizations for things esspecially when talking about art is just silly.
erfinney
- 7 months ago in reply to QuestTheWordsmith@QuestTheWordsmith
because in our world everything must be labled (see demetri martin, comedian)
erfinney
- 7 months agoif the person who creates it is intending it to be art, then its art. whether the rest of the world thinks its worthy or not, does not matter.
QuestTheWordsmith
- 7 months agoHmmm, it DOES seem that it's politically incorrect to say something isn't art - there's probably someone who will say it is. So far, so subjective. The only problem I have with saying "ANYTHING can be art" is that then you cant define art. So can we label something that cant be defined? Why call it art then? Why call it anything at all? Hmmm...
imoistpancakes
- 7 months agoAs general term, art is anything created that flows out the artist. A three year-old's picture is art. Just because someone isn't good at a craft or is creating something stupid is creating art. Maybe not good art but it's an expression of a person.
I think though that most main stream artists don't create anything new. They're performers and entertainers not true artists. So in my mind it's not art unless it's a real expression not just a copy/paste love fest.
UberBarrett
- 7 months agoPeople seem to say something is not art if they just don't like it. Anything can be art but few things will be are to you (the individual).
SadieWuvsU
- 7 months agoI think when a work of art, created by a living and unknown artist, is hung in a Strip Mall Starbucks with a Price tag of $1900, it is no longer art, UNLESS, said price tag is just an insurance policy put in place by living and unknown artist to prevent any purchase from ever happening - for fear of parting ways from beloved creation.
IdealistMel
- 7 months agoThe work of the Black Eyed Peas
HelpImAlive
- 7 months agoWell art is subjective... yes some isn't exactly wonderful but it depends who sees it. But I do agree with dootsie, I hope that my doting little sketches end up resignating with someone who sees it if even for that split second and I think thats what anyone with art in their soul, mind, their everything - even if they do or don choose to always express or explore it- wishes. I also think that alot of people do it in desperation to be remembered or feel important.
bad_move
- 7 months ago"Not art" - I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.
dootsie
- 7 months agoIt's nice to say that we're all beautiful and unique snowflakes and that our souls just vomit out beauty and tragedy and capital ART. And who is anyone to judge spiritual vomit, right?
Except seriously, people.
There's a difference between a random, impulsive stroke of a pen and a soulfelt, contemplated and carefully planned stroke of a pen. There's a difference between a carefully arranged piece of music and something quickly churned out to meet a deadline rather than a genuine NEED.
Art comes from need.
The need to make something permanent, the need to say something and the need to vomit!
Unlike scrawling someone's name on a bathroom stall, however, it takes the secret something that comes from within that none of us can put our fingers on and define.
You know art when you see it, touch it, hear it or experience it.
Some part of you instantly connects to it, even for just a split second. Maybe that connection will turn to disgust, but you still share this tiny shock of lighting between your soul and what fraction of themself that the artist left behind.
Even if you don't like it.
BlakRhino
- 7 months agoTHIS -->"I believe that anything that takes time, commitment, hard work and a lot of love equals art. Something that one person expresses or pays homage to through creativity - now that's art." -ineedyou22
ridingearhart512
- 7 months ago in reply to ineedyou22@ineedyou22
I get what you are getting at, but I don't think true art comes from Commitment or hard work. I think it simply comes from passion and feeling and for that you shouldn't need to commit or work hard. Either way that's just my humble opinion
or in the words of David Gilmour (and I am paraphrasing)
"Anything you do, Anything you create is art."
ineedyou22
- 7 months agoI agree with the elevator music - I mean, it's not even music, it's muzak - chopped up, slowed down, stripped of its passion and life into genuine crap. It's AWFUL.
I believe that anything that takes time, commitment, hard work and a lot of love equals art. Something that one person expresses or pays homage to through creativity - now that's art.
And to those people that say art is something beautiful - well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
kanookie13480
- 7 months agoi really dislike a lot of modern art. i was at the MET and was looking in the modern art section and saw a piece called "blue canvas".. guess what it was.. it was a canvas painted blue. and it was in the MET??? im sorry. but that is not art. congrats that you can paint.. becuase my 4 year old nephew could do the same thing. Also in the same room was a lightbulb attatched to the wall... also NOT art. come on people. create something that is IMPRESSIVE... not something that just YOU understand.. dont just throw paint on the canvas. do something with it! make something beautiful!
Iddybud
- 7 months agoOne man (or woman's) Sweating Elvis on velvet is another man (or woman's) Porte de l'Enfer.
MSongbird
- 7 months agoart is something only the artist can ever really understand. it comes from somewhere deep inside.
jjlast
- 7 months agonude photography. not saying all by any means, because i do like some of it.....but most is cliched and just photographers looking for a way to get girls naked. that's not art to me.
hermitalchemist
- 7 months agoArt used to refer to mastery of a skill set or craft as it is still used to refer to a skill like Animation (as in "The Art of Animation") However, in the modern concept of Art, most Animation is seen as mass produced and mass consumed media (with the exception of folks like Takashi Murikami who have made mass produced and mass consumed media "Art"). It is quite appropriate that the concept of Art from mastery and skill to a "faculty of the human mind" changed during the Romantic Era... (one of my favorite eras especially in Music). It seems that Art and Artists are particularly romanticized in our times. That might be why in San Francisco there are plenty of "Artists live/work lofts" that seem not to have any Artists living or working in them (because they are damn expensive) hows THAT for post modern irony? For my part, I am not scared of being labeled a Craftsman. If the result of my craft is labeled "Art" that is totally out of my hands. For me, the "finished" Painting is rarely the reward, but only the result of blissful moments of being.
Cubis_Max
- 7 months agoI think art is something you apply your skills toward to communicate a message or feeling. Random paint splashes and abstract sculptures with the idea that the viewer can decide for themselves just don't fit.
mypu55yismagic
- 7 months agoI don't really see the issue as art versus not art, but rather good art versus bad art.