What About Art?

Personal Experience

I think that we've all looked at a painting, sculpture, or even dance, and wondered what is art. Even more importantly, what is not art.

My wife and I visited the Eli and Edyth Broad Art Museum, at Michigan State University, some years ago. We were excited, as when we were dating, we would visit the Detroit Institute of Art regularly. To make a long story short, the photographer who was presenting at the time seemed obsessed with taking photos of his penis. There were hundreds of his photos of his penis throughout the main room. Suffice to say, we have not been back, which isn't fair but I started thinking about whether taking pictures of penis' was actually art, and what is the difference between art and pornography?

Differences Between Art and Pornography

It may not seem like an obvious task. There does exist some important differences. The classic differences supported by academics like Ann Eaton. The most notable difference is that pornography is explicit and objectifies people while art is subjective and relies on opinions from the viewer. You cannot focus on body parts while at the same time contemplating the artistic value of the art.

My own opinion is that this is a great starting point. This also introduces a couple of key points; that art is subjective and should rely on opinions from the viewer. An example would be viewers of pornography typically focus on body parts, while those viewing art will take the whole work into account.

Obviously, there are many gray areas here. Personal experience, the quality of the work and the different elements contained. Generally speaking, we can say that pornography is not art, in the classical sense.

So What is Art?

We have typically looked at art as paintings or drawings of various types. We may have even looked at ceramics and pottery as examples of art. But have you really considered that activities like dancing, singing, architecture and design, are all under this header of art.

Not all examples of these would be considered art. Take for example writing, which is considered and art, however, would you also consider the instructions for your new blender artistic? Probably, not.

The Principles of Art:

Balance

Balance is the placement of the objects in the artwork. It is important, in most cases, for elements to be arranged so that this can be accomplished. In some instances, depending on what the artist is attempting to communicate, that work may be more or less balanced.

Unity

Unity refers to how well the elements work together. Do they belong together by type, historically? An example would be attempting to paint a 1600's scene and including a jet flying in the sky.

Contrast

Contrast refers to colors or elements that create a pattern that would otherwise be missing. The sky contrasts with the ground. The contrast enables the artist to communicate depth and texture.

Variety

Variety pertains to the different types of elements used in a piece–for example, small and large elements, as well as black and white elements.

Movement

The path the eye follows when viewing a piece of art, many artists make use of a consistent color throughout the painting so that your eyes will follow the path the artist wishes. Look at some classic painting again, you will recognize this aspect.

Harmony

Harmony in a design refers to the use of similar or consistent elements, almost the opposite of contrast where color or composition will be used to pull elements together, or make them appear as if they belong.

Proportion

Sometimes called “scale,” this principle refers to the size of elements in a design. It's used many times to show depth, look at the sizes of elements that are farther away vs. closer. The size is the characteristic that tricks your brain into thinking that true depth exists.

Rhythm

Rhythm is more readily noticed when it incorporates patterns, but the general definition is the repetition of elements to show energy, or movement. sometimes this is accomplished using repetitive blurred and clear lines.

Most art use these principles, some to a greater and others to a lesser extent.

Seeing

These almost miss, what I believe, is one of the most important skills of an artist, at least visual artist. That is seeing the world around him, in a more detailed and focused way. So many times you will notice videos and lessons on how to paint this or that. These also miss the point.

Do you remember when you were in grade school? Trees were green, tree trunks were brown, sidewalks were gray, and the sky was blue. There was never any actual looking at those elements. When did you notice that tree trunks are usually a range of grays, leaves from green to yellow to brown, and sidewalks usually white. What I'm saying is that the first step is actually seeing, then we can replicate what we see on paper.

The next step of seeing, is seeing deeper meanings and feelings, digging into your soul for the happiness, or sadness. How does what your looking at make you feel? How can you communicate those feelings?

Conclusion:

I am not bright enough to distill the essence of what art is. I can make inroads, and continually further my understanding. This is where I am at. So, I thought I would steal a short definition from Geofferey Klempner, and Jurgen Lawrenz that they wrote in August of 2019.

The essence of art

AUGUST 27, 2019 ~ GEOFFREY KLEMPNER

Therese asked:

What is the essence of art?

Answer by Jürgen Lawrenz

I hope you will not expect an essay from me on such a large and problematic issue! All I can do, is to give you some clues that might go some way toward an answer.

First, it depends on time and place — there is no universally agreed ‘essence’ of art across all cultures where it is practised. Nevertheless (point 2), underlying this diversity we find a common thread, which is the impulse to adorn and embellish ourselves and our environment, as well as making utilitarian objects attractive by beautification. But this is not yet art; nor is it unique to mankind — we share these traits with many animals which exhibit the same impulses.

So we need to look elsewhere. We need to look at how we express ourselves on occasions of high intensity. There are two ways, one associated with our relations to the gods (let’s call this ‘religion’); the other with the sorry fact that “we are all born to suffer”. When we look at our resources in these contexts, we find our imaginative faculties straining to find modes of expression and self-expression that reach for greater profundity than prayers or sacrificing, weeping or becoming depressed. We might feel something stirring in ourselves, that seeks to connect us more intimately with the gods or our grief and suffering. Then instead of mumbling and wailing, we begin to sing — as Goethe said in one of his poems, “when as a creature I fall mute from pain, a god gave me tongue to sing of what I suffer.”

Elaborating a bit: Art thrives on aspiration and inspiration. Take note that these are ‘vertical’ directions, ‘the spirit’ rising above and descending below the thresholds of quotidian experience.

It stands to reason that this is not a matter for logical analysis or verbal confetti about cause and effect. It has to do with soul, emotion, feeling and related impulses which resist clear-cut conceptualization, although we clearly have the capacity to experience them. Though born from a religious sense, they do not compellingly involve religious faith. On the contrary, art is deeply entangled in ‘the meaning of life’; it represents the imprint of our humanness on a cold, unfeeling universe.

All this is of course thoroughly ambiguous, so that skeptical eras like ours can easily “lose the plot” and treat art as merely another form of entertainment. When this happens, it doesn’t diminish the relevance of art, but leaves a hole in our self-conception where desperation and meaninglessness creep in, which we cannot combat with the web’s “millions of songs” or the millions of paintings in our galleries and cruise ships, that are all stereotypes of each other.

At any rate, the essence of art and the essence of human life are are so tightly interwoven that one could say: Art alone of all our attainments puts our fingerprint on the world’s face, imparts meaning to it, connects us to ourselves collectively and reconciles us to the bitterness of necessity. As Nietzsche once said, “let us have art so as not to die of the truth!” Which means nothing other than that the truths of art are ingrained in us, whereas all other truths are tyrants imported from science, philosophy, religion, politics, economics, what have you. Therefore art is the mirror of our creative consciousness, whose essence it is to create the values that impart meaning to our existence. Take them away, and existence itself would hardly matter a jot.

I really love this definition, and I believe it actually touches the basis of what art is and what it means.

I would like to thank everyone that followed on this journey, and I look forward to the next adventure.

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Bryan Brouwer