What is Art?
In Easel 14, Allan posed the question "What is Art?"
Allan's own notes are below, followed by three contributions from others in various forms ....
If you have children or grandchildren at school, the ‘Student Hanbook for Art & Design’ by Richard Hickman at £3.95 from Pearson Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1 85749 637 X is a book that provides support, advice and up-to-date information about art and design at Key Stages 3 and 4, and GCSE. The National Curriculum for Art and Design places emphasis upon three connected areas - understanding art, knowing about art, and making or creating art. This handbook is based on these three areas.
“Traditionally, there are three main ideas about what art should be, with related ideas about how it should be judged:
- Art should be based on imitation. It should look like something or represent some- thing; the more realistic it is, the better the art.”
- Art should be concerned with feeling and expression; the more it conveys feeling the better it is.”
- Art should be concerned with the interesting arrangement of visual elements. The most successful art is that which has the most ‘significant form’, ie the most interesting arrangement of shape, colour, etc.”
(Note: I recommend this little handbook with equal weight to both novices and those who consider themselves to be experts. Wonderful stuff! Ed.)
What is Art? - John Evans
Dear Allan,
Replying to your thought provoking Easel-hung shirt I would say that
too seriously discuss whether it is or is not Art would take a long
time and bore your readers to death. Suffice to say that by the
examples you mention and the definition in my dictionary the answer is
yes but should be no!
I much prefer your “wasted opportunity” on the back cover.
Rather than prompting discussion however, the Easel stimulated me to
action. The result is the enclosed and when it was finished I decided
an appropriate title would indeed be “Stimulation”.
Now I am not so sure for I discern a somewhat unfortunate juxtaposition
of the hand at the bottom of the picture. If this had been intentional
it might have been rather clever but it wasn’t!
Regards,
John Evans
(STIMULATION is on the front cover. Ed.)
What is Art? - Dianne Gilmour
Two to three nano-seconds after our first meeting Allan Davies asked me
if I would write an article for this edition of ‘The Easel’.
“O.K.,” said I, “What about?” “What is Art?”
“Oh, that old chestnut. Eezy Peezy lemon squeezy - I know THAT!” So
here it is - the definitive, complete and utter answer to the question
What is Art?.
Art is:-
Looking at a portrait in the current Holbein exhibition and realising that you’ve just seen that person on the tube.
Sitting in the Rothko room at Tate Modern and feeling totally awestruck without knowing why.
Anything by Rembrandt.
“My Mum and a Carrot” by Jade, aged 5. (Collection of the artist).
John Singer Sargent’s watercolours.
A Thierry Henry goal. (This was my teenage son’s suggestion and is included under the umbrella term of Performance Art.)
The Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Finding something to like among the 2006 Turner Prize contenders. Honest! Check out Tomma Abts.
Rolf Harris. Anyone who can get seven million plus people to watch a programme on Rodin has to be a bit special.
That moment when you’re painting/drawing/sculpting or whatever it is
you do when something just HAPPENS. Just for one fleeting moment you
have an insight into how every artist in history has felt. MAGIC.
So there it is. Art. Sorted.
Now - the Meaning of Life....
Dianne Gilmour (New BAS member)
Note: This was submitted well before the winner of the Turner Prize was announced. Ed.
What is Art? - Keith Burtonshaw
There once was an artist unknown
whose painting resembled a stone.
“It’s abstract,” he said,
“it’s a young lady’s head
with nothing to see but the bone.
But why are the features left out
and a few scribbly lines strewn about?
“They show an idea in my mind
that imagines an image of kind.
But if onlookers cannot see this,
how can they know what it is?
“It’s the title that tells us,” he said,
as he woke from his dream in his bed.
“But without a title I’m sunk,”
he thought as he sat on his bunk.
Keith Burtonshaw