What Is ART
The "What is Art” Question
Michael Holsomback
First, In order to qualify as art, the thing we call "ART" must employ the “creative process"! The” creative process" must be involved in the production of art!
The “creative process" is what I call a "leap of the Imagination". This idea may best be illustrated by Picasso's "Bull" below.
This is a readymade by Pablo Picasso. It is literally a bicycle seat and bicycle handlebars. Picasso "saw" what would happen when he put these to objects together. It would create a representation of a bull. This was one BIG leap of the imagination. Art normally requires hundreds or even thousands of little "leaps". This is what we call the creative process (creative decisions) which the artist goes through in order to create art. It is a requirement to call something art.
Art does not have to be beautiful or speak of beauty (physical, emotional or spiritual). Art can be ugly; be about ugly things, ugly actions, and ugly people. Art does not have to be intellectually, emotionally or spiritually grand. It can be at times banal and superficial. However, in many cases, art is a grand and glorious human enterprise. It can ennoble and elevate and make humanity better than it is. It can be and often is sublime. But, I would say to you, do not expect this always, and do not determine whether something is art or not simply using these grand ideals. Also, art is created by human hands. It is exclusively a human endeavor. God or nature (however you look at such things), created many beautiful things and people, but these are not art. The idea of art being "created" in the same way that God "creates" was developed in the early 16th century Italian renaissance, before that time, art was thought of as something that people simply made, like craft. Art has retained much of this grandeur that was bestowed upon it in the 16th century, even into our own age.
Michael Holsomback
First, In order to qualify as art, the thing we call "ART" must employ the “creative process"! The” creative process" must be involved in the production of art!
The “creative process" is what I call a "leap of the Imagination". This idea may best be illustrated by Picasso's "Bull" below.
This is a readymade by Pablo Picasso. It is literally a bicycle seat and bicycle handlebars. Picasso "saw" what would happen when he put these to objects together. It would create a representation of a bull. This was one BIG leap of the imagination. Art normally requires hundreds or even thousands of little "leaps". This is what we call the creative process (creative decisions) which the artist goes through in order to create art. It is a requirement to call something art.
Art does not have to be beautiful or speak of beauty (physical, emotional or spiritual). Art can be ugly; be about ugly things, ugly actions, and ugly people. Art does not have to be intellectually, emotionally or spiritually grand. It can be at times banal and superficial. However, in many cases, art is a grand and glorious human enterprise. It can ennoble and elevate and make humanity better than it is. It can be and often is sublime. But, I would say to you, do not expect this always, and do not determine whether something is art or not simply using these grand ideals. Also, art is created by human hands. It is exclusively a human endeavor. God or nature (however you look at such things), created many beautiful things and people, but these are not art. The idea of art being "created" in the same way that God "creates" was developed in the early 16th century Italian renaissance, before that time, art was thought of as something that people simply made, like craft. Art has retained much of this grandeur that was bestowed upon it in the 16th century, even into our own age.