Tuesday, March 19, 2013

What is art? Yvonne Gandert


To define art is to limit its reach, but I believe in some cases that the definition of art should be limited. In the way that there are highly respected fields of science, there are also pseudo-sciences which are not given the same high regard as art.  
I think that the term artist is an all encompassing to apply to art which is made for personal, public, professional or therapeutic use.  An artist who makes their living practicing art, (i.e. creating paintings, music, ) and relies heavily on income generated from selling artwork or presenting exhibitions should be considered professional artists.
I have trouble accepting some abstract work as art. For example, in the UNM MFA Booklet, I saw a final project consisting of a dirty shoe hanging from a hook on the wall.  To me, stuff like this is not art, and not up to the academic standards of an MFA. Art requires hard work as well as analytic and .
Also, in Scholes Hall there are a number of 6 ft x 6ft abstract paintings. They look like wasted canvas, with colors haphazardly thrown onto the canvas with no compositional or aesthetic appeal. I get sort of annoyed that these are the paintings used in the ‘most important’ building on campus.
I have trouble calling many things art, but I don’t think that my subjectivity is a definitive answer or any more correct than anyone else’s assessment of art.

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