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essay on conceptual art
essay on conceptual art
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Art encompasses everything. It is such a broad subject that it can be found in the most bizarre places - like a house's structural wall built out of beer cans. Artists are always trying to push boundaries and think outside the canvas, as it were. After all, why create art that has already been done? The inherent problem with this is that now, because so much has already been done, everyone wants the excuse to call anything art. Worse – society's etiquette teaches us that we should be accepting of it because of its status as “art”. It tells us that we should at least appreciate the attempts of one piece of art over the other. This can be good, and it can be very, very bad. If someone scoops up dirt into a cup and places it on a stool at an art gallery, why should this be called art? Just because it happens to be at an art gallery? Or perhaps because the cup of dirt was put there by a self-proclaimed artist. In reality, the cup of dirt is not art, but a sad attempt at using our cultural mercy as a gateway to acceptance. The title's expletive is being used as an adjective as opposed to a statement. The idea of art that has not only pushed past the norm to the boundaries accepted by society, but has broken through into a realm visited upon by wide eyes and gasps is not a bad thing as long as there is some measure of ingenuity or effort. If I rip off my left arm and tape it to a wall and call it art, there will be wide eyes and gasps, but it's not art. It's a pathetic attempt at breaching the boundary without using any ingenuity or effort, and relying on society's leniency to accept it. You may say Duchamp's Fountain is simply an upside-down urinal. Why is this art? Because it takes traditional art in all of its socially conditio... ... middle of paper ... ...what if the 16th guy is doing similar landscapes in human feces? Despite the health ramifications (and the disgusting nature of the art), his idea is still considered ingenious, and he is certainly attracting attention. As it stands, the attention he attracts may not be the most civilized, but I can promise his following would (sadly) grow if he were serious, and he is certainly grabbing his fellow airbrushers by the throat and saying that abrupt, well-known phrase. It may not seem like art to us now, but neither did Fountain. In conclusion, it is important that art continues to be gauged on its effort and ingenuity in order to be considered art at all. Otherwise, our cultural tendons will weaken and give way to the unmistakable infiltration of nonsense and effortless trash. We should be accepting of all art as long as there is some semblance of effort or ingenuity.
It is art fulfilling its role in society. It is art that brings the moral issues. It is art that makes us human.
What is ‘Art’? Does the term describe a tangible object, experiential event, process, technique, medium, or creative skill? Does it imply attractive decoration, pleasant arrangement, and sound financial investment - or can art provoke, be unattractive, make people uncomfortable, and be fleeting? Today, Art is subjective, open to interpretation and encompasses the spectrum of the visual, literary, dance, and musical humanities - often overlapping one another. As such, Art and its practice can be all of the above and more. Post World War II, Modernist theories were waning and a general dissatisfaction was building in the United States and other westernized countries that ultimately led up to the cultural and social revolution of the 1960’s. The period also parallels a rise in relative wealth and subsequent mass consumption of commodities, education, and cultural activities within all the socioeconomic classes. Personal expression became acceptable and art practice exploded to include multiple fields of activity that Rosalind Krauss likens to “an extraordinary practice in elasticity”. Interest in ecology, performance, process, alternative materials, a loosening of social mores and experimentation with altered states of reality contributed to the rise of what is now known amply as Postmodernism. Civil rights, the anti-war movement, rise of feminism, and a political movement left of center created egalitarian entrances for many into various fields of study including Art. Nevertheless, similar to the current state of Western Civilization, not everyone appreciates an open multiplicity of voices often differing in viewpoints from safer, more conservative ones. It is in this context that artists Robert Smithson and Richard Serra bega...
Men such as Hugo Ball and Marcel Duchamp created art that was outrageous, whimsical, and that scorned the conventions of high culture, especially the appreciation of artistic skill. Marcel Duchamp played a significant role in redefining individualism with his Fountain. Formerly a urinal, this piece highlighted the modern style of mechanical innovations, but on a deeper level asked the question of who and what defines something as art, or even good art or bad art. This concept that art is defined differently by everyone, and can be anything, had a lasting effect on how individualism
In 1915 the concept of “readymade” art was introduced by Marcel Duchamp when he took an ordinary snow shovel and painted the title In advance of the broken arm. He had previously turned a wheel up-side down and attached it to a stool, creating a piece he called Bicycle wheel. This was also considered a “readymade.” A “readymade” by Duchamp is “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.” Duchamp produced many of these “readymades,” but it his readymade entitled Fountain that we will be discussing here. Duchamp’s Fountain originated from a urinal that he with two other friends purchased from a plumber, took to his studio, and turned it on its backside. He painted the pseudonym “R. Mutt” on it, and submitted it to the Society of Independent Artists in an exhibition. Duchamp took an everyday item and submitted it as art. His Fountain was a readymade that would become the most influential piece of art of the 20th century. Society ponders Duchamp’s meaning behind his artwork. What is it? What does it represent? What did Marcel Duchamp mean by this piece? Is it art because he chose it as art? The art world is so ostentatious that it will over analyze anything that is put in front of them, when in fact; there is no meaning at all. Marcel Duchamp chose this piece as a practical joke on the Society of Independent Artists. It is in my judgment that just choosing an object for display does not constitute it to be art.
In this essay I will be discussing what, in my own opinion, makes good art. To justify what I consider to be a good standard of art, I will be analyzing the work of French symbolist Eugene Carriere and contrasting this with artwork I consider to not be 'good art'.
In 1917, Marcel Duchamp submitted his urinal, the Fountain, to the American Society of Independent Artists . The urinal was taken from J. L. Mott Iron Works in New York City, rotated ninety degrees and signed “R. Mutt.” The name “R. Mutt” was an alias he created to sign the piece. “R” stands for Richard was slang for a rich man, and “Mutt” refers to a cartoon character from the show “Mott and Mutt.” The American Society of Independent Artists was an un-juried show , making for an opportune time for Duchamp to submit his work. Although the show was not juried, the piece was not accepted into the show for multiple reasons.
Art is a language of its own and with out he proper understanding, people are like expression goes “left on the outside looking in”. In other words, people without the proper understanding of art, technique and form as well as other elements can’t appreciate a work of art as much as when you understand why an artist painted in the way they did and what they are trying to get across to his audience. Despite artists attempts to try and make their works as viewer friendly as possible, without the understanding and knowledge gained from an art class as this one people will never fully understand the a work of art as it is meant to be.
Though people can look into color and composition, others can still even look into the source of the art itself. Cole goes deeper, delving into the source of the art, looking in particular into the idea of cultural appropriation and the view a person can give others. Though it is good for people to be exposed to different opinions of a group or an object, sometimes people can find it difficult to tell the difference between the reality and the art itself. Sometimes art can be so powerful that its message stays and impacts its audience to the point where the viewer’s image of the subject of the art changes entirely. Cole brings up an important question about art, however. Art has become some kind of media for spreading awareness and even wisdom at times, but in reality, “there is also the question of what the photograph is for, what role it plays within the economic circulation of images” (973). Cole might even be implying that Nussbaum’s advertisement can sometimes be the point of some media, and that sometimes the different genres of art can just be to make someone with a particular interest happy. One more point that Cole makes is that “[a]rt is always difficult, but it is especially difficult when it comes to telling other people’s stories.” (974) Truthfully, awareness and other like-concepts are difficult to keep going when a person or a group is not directly involved.
What is a satisfactory definition of art? What reason do we need to think that there is some moral reason that transgression cannot be art? It art simply just a painting of landscape or is it that we need to be outraged and shocked to really think what contributes as art? Are immoral works of art must be necessarily bad forms of art?
“The business of art lies in this—to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible.” (Tolstoy 267) It needs a purpose, this is a very utilitarian way of thinking and it is sad to see it applied to art. Not that art can’t do this, it can, but it can also be beautiful. Some people will only see it as beautiful but that doesn’t make it stop being art. Some people will think it is ugly, but that’s just their opinion and if they want to claim it is not art, that doesn’t mean it’s not art for the rest of us.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, art is “human expression of objects by painting, etc” (10). The words “human experience” adds meaning to art. Artists reveal their inner thoughts and feelings through their work. When we study a painting by Salvador Dali, the strange objects and the surrealist background portrays the eccentricity of the painter. Some ideas cannot be explained verbally. They can only be shown via a medium. We can get across what is in our minds or our hearts by a stroke of a brush, a drop of paint, a row of words, or something else. But to express ourselves, we do not need to limit what we call art.
Art by definition is “the expression or application of creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power,” (Hacker, 2011).
Throughout the history of , which is arguably the length of time held within the universe, not much has been distorted. Art, along with is an incredibly difficult subject to comprehend, due to the varying nature of themes, opinions, and judgments. Not to cite all the societies, time periods, ethnicities, age and gender biased opinions. It is neither a science, nor a philosophy. It is both. within itself is a beauty, which will forever perplex the minds of the world. Art, placed in the neighborhood of philosophy and science reveals its innate inclination, (although undefined) to forever intrigue and perplex both the scientific and philosophical minds.
“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. Moreover, unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.” This quote by Ernst Fischer, a German composer, means that truth in art exposes the parts of society, and of life, that no one wants to see. In order for art to change society, it must first reflect the fears and failures of its people. The artist can change how people think of themselves and the world by using less conventional methods of creating art. The artist, in doing this, introduces new ideas of human placement in time and space, new frontiers of thought, that are furthered by the disciplines of science and philosophy. The artist works to introduces unique- and sometimes offensive- ideas so that society will be exposed to new ways of thinking and understanding the world. The artist does this through experimentation with color, style, and form. Therefore, the purpose of the artist should be to challenge how individuals perceive themselves and the offensive aspects of society reflected in art to bring about innovations in the greater society.
Human’s have always struggled to express themselves. Art, is considered by many to be the ultimate form of human expression. Many assume that art has a definition, but this is not the case. Art, it can be said, is “in the eye of the beholder.” This simply means that what you consider art, someone else would not. Art is part of a person’s internal emotions, which signifies why different people see art as different things. Every type of culture and era presents distinctive and unique characteristics. Different cultures all have different views of what art can, and would be, causing art itself to be universally renowned throughout the world.