What defines art? What are its strengths and weaknesses? What function should art play, if any?

Question

Include in your consideration all popular and historical art forms, examples being music, literature, visual art, dance, etc. Feel free to add to or subtract from anything in that list. Also, please try to be as objective as possible. I know, as does everyone else in the world that art is inherently subjective, but obviously art differs in quality. What should the criterion be when judging art? Please be as elaborate or as succinct as you wish.

Answer 1

I'm afraid I can't be objective about something I'm so passionate about! Art to me is a necessity. It nourishes the soul. I am an artist (painter working in acrylic on canvas) and a musician (singer/songwriter/guitarist). Art for me is therapy, it is an expression of my thoughts, emotions, it tells my life story.
Being able to share my expression with others (by showing & selling paintings and by playing my music at a local bar) is among my life's greatest rewards. I suppose I would fall under the school of Expressionism since art for me is about expressing emotion.

Since visual art is my area of expertise I will focus on that. Art has had different roles throughout history. Originally it was a means of recording history. Before there were cameras, it was the only visual record of events, people etc. Neoclassicists like Jacques Louis David revived this classic form of art depicting historical & mythological events. Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci focused on religious themes in a naturalistic though idealized style. Realists like Gustav Courbet depicted sometimes ugly & mundane reality as opposed to the idealized beauty of classicists. Romanticists like Eugene Delacroix depicted romantic & exaggerated themes. Impressionists like Claude Monet tried to catch the effects of light with dappled brushstrokes. They began focusing as much on the paint itself as the subject. Expressionists such as Egon Schiele and Edvard Munch expressed emotions through their paintings. Symbolists like Odilon Redon explored the mind, feelings and deeper meanings rather than the literal physical world. Surrealists like Salvador Dali had a hyper realistic detailed style yet showed images from their imagination, dreams, nightmares, bizarre fantasy landscapes. Modern, abstract, non-representational artists such as Wassily Kandinsky played with colours, textures, forms & patterns. His paintings remind me of music & in fact are often named compositions. Pop artists such as Andy Warhol played with modern culture & icons (such as Marilyn Monroe or a can of Campbells soup) in a colourful, graphic style.

Music, dance etc every form of art has changed and evolved throughout history, taking on different manifestations. Art, in all its forms, is an expression of its time. It encapsulates the culture, the mood of the society from which it springs. You can look at a painting, listen to a piece of music, see a piece of clothing or furniture (fashion & design are also art forms) & know which period they are from. Art is the soul of society. It represents our hopes, dreams, fears, thoughts, our ideals of beauty. It is a statement.

Art is anything that moves you. Anything that lifts your spirit, makes you think, gets your attention. I could not live without art. My walls are covered in my own paintings. Having art on the walls makes a house a home. I am always surrounded by music (the radio at work or in the car etc). We may all have different tastes in art, music etc. What is considered "good" is subjective. I like a wide range of music from classical to alternative. I like them for different reasons. I find classical music spiritually uplifting. Alternative rock & techno gives me energy & makes me want to dance.

To me, all art forms are divine. They are celebrations of the human spirit. They lift us out of ourselves, they jolt us out of our mundane existence. They move us.

You can judge art based on certain criteria (visual art for instance has certain elements: compostition, colour, etc) you can say whether it was well-executed. Just as with music you can judge how well instruments are played etc but there is a magical quality to a piece. Any work of art has a character which can not be judged objectively because it is entirely a matter of preference. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder so is art. Critics can try to tell us what is good or isn't & why but the bottom line is that we each make the choice for ourselves. What do you choose to hang on your wall? What music do you like to listen to? That is what good art is to you.

Sorry for not being succinct!

:)

Art matters. It is a strength. There is no weakness. The world without art would be a bleak place indeed. (There is art behind everything you encounter. Nature is God's work of art. Everything else you see, hear & touch is man's.)