Monday, March 11, 2013

What is Art? - Julia Shahvar

What is art?  This is a question that has been mused on since the inception of the idea.  I believe that the quickest way to invalidate art, of any kind, is to define it.  The moment one defines art, the concepts inherent in it as an expressive medium begin to constrict, limiting the very expressive nature that art is meant to convey. 

 Due to these definitions art has become a vehicle for the wealthy or cultured to qualify the output of artists as worthy.  In this classification, artists bend to the will of those lacking the ability to express more than  it is possible to express with words alone.  


When it comes to considering art, I prefer to stand on the shoulders of giants:


"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time," Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island.


"The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art," Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

"Art is a way, not a thing," Inoue Manji.

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things but their inner significance," Aristotle.

And lastly:

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls," Pablo Picasso.

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