Art Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

To get to the ball rolling for this essay I decided to look up art in my trusty Collins Australian School Dictionary which I have in fact had since high school. I have kept it all these years because I find a calming simplicity to its definitions, and it doesn't fail me with art. Collins believes art to be "....the creation of objects such as paintings and sculptures, which are thought to be beautiful or which express a particular idea". To my surprise I find that I couldn't agree more. Except that the examples of art forms may need a large extension to include, photography, performance, happenings, installations, and even lives. Art definitely has something to do with beauty and expressing ideas. What I like about this definition is it's broadness, since beauty and ideas are individual to each person so it allows art to be.

If you were hoping for something a little tighter I hate to disappoint you, but I wish to point out some of the reasons why it is not only impossible but ill advised to have a limited definition of art. The biggest problem with having a set and printed definition of art to follow when I walk into a gallery is that it immediately disempowers me. It gives me a frame which I must look through instead of allowing my own context and views to form that frame. The issue is someone else would be making the decisions for me, and who exactly should that be? Should artists, galleries or universities decide and would they not have a bias and agenda in coming to a definition as would, men, women or any particular race and nationality. To gain any kind of consensus would be impossible, and to trust others to control our view of the world ill advised.

The other big problem with defining art is that any definition would be limited to its time and technology, if cave men had set the definition of art as "paintings on cave walls representing human and animal figures made with natural pigments", thousands of years later we would not have the juicy and exciting digital art forms and narratives that we enjoy today. Not to mention merely the varying physical perspectives, tall buildings, aeroplanes, speeding cars and trains have given us.

When you really think about it, giving art any sort of definition in terms of forms or types of expression would make it very boring, a limited definition would result in a limited output. If art gives us anything it is a constantly evolving way to understand the world around us and a solid reflection of the cultural nuances of our past.

Stay tuned tomorrow for "What does 'that's not art' really mean