ZOMBIE FORUMS

Art is conveying emotions or an idea while making no effort to tell the immedaite patron how to think. Atleast I find that kind of art the most beautiful. The more brazen of the audience ultimately shape the publics opinion.

Tell me what you think : )

Conveying emotions=expression.

Expression was considered a universally important aspect of art for a relatively short time in art history, let's say roughly from the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. The idea had been floating around throughout the modern era (starting from perhaps the Renaissance), but reached its fullest and most explicit formulation in the Romantic period (with its notions of "the mad genius" and the imagination[1]), and eventually led to what could be considered its logical conclusion -- abstract expressionism, where everything, including pictorial representation, is eliminated in favor of "pure" transmission of the artist's "vision" or "emotional state". Of course, this led to a lot of artistic masturbation[2], which led to Pop Art and Minimalism, neither of which value very much the old Romanticized notion of the artist or art.

[1]Our current concept of the imagination - and tendency to glorify it - is more or less invented in this period.
[2]Not to say all of it was crap. (Rothko represent!) But a lot of it was.

Iunno, the idea that pigment on a canvas (or chiseled marble, or ink on dead tree, or pixels on a screen) can somehow be connected to the configuration of chemicals and electrical energy within our brain seems a little ridiculous to me.

Of course with no backup except my opinion I think that art is hard. If it doesn't take your time concentration and skill than it is not art. This means that with enough time, effort and determination anything could become an artform. Such as gardening or building models. Film is a good example. There are plenty of crappy movies that come out all the time but the true clasics took time and effort.

It seems to me that there has been a considerable shift in what people mean when they talk about 'art' over the centuries, at least in the layman's sense. Once upon a time, it referred to a set of finely-honed skills and a quest for an aesthetic experience, however nowadays people tend to focus more on the emotional experience derived from art, with the skill-set used to produce that experience taking a back seat.

Incidentally, discussions about what modern art 'is' with the two people I know who, being Fine Art students, are supposed to know about these things have yielded responses that can be summed up as follows:

'It's all bullshit really'.

Well, sure, art is bullshit, just like politics, philosophy, literature, science, and ethics. And, uhm, everything which rests upon an arbitrary set of facts or categories which we essentially create out of convenience. Which means EVERYTHING.

Indeed.

And just to clarify, the 'bullshit' comment was:

1. intended as a semi-humourous aside; and
2. one of the people I refered to's more-or-less exact words, not my opinion of what they said.

I don't really care what art is as a spoken or written definition. I know when I persue art personally I don't just try my best to demonstrate a prowess only present after years of practice, but strive to create a window looking out into a scene the eye can't bear to look away from. My hard work shows in the details which help to either imitate or create a perversion of life (life meaning solid, tangible objects as well as living things.) I've always been very fond of century worn trees because a tree only becomes more interesting as it ages; the knots and warping bark twisting together into a wizened, gnarled giant. There's no real emotion I can put to a piece of work like a picture of a tree, the mind just becomes flooded with sensations, at least for me.

My avatar:

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Funny how you're posting in the What is Art thread.

Yeah, contradicted myself with that sentence by posting in the first place. I should have said "It seems hopeless for me to try and define art, as I never much thought about it before."

I suppose if I didn't care I wouldn't have given any input. Now I'm arguing with myself, damnit.

art is selfexpression in its finest and in the most polished form (the person who is creating art piece is expressing something that is inside him or her in his or her chosen media)

Nicrat, I love old trees too, you should come here in Britain to see how gigantic and enormous eloquent and holy trees are growing here, this entire country is a miracle but the people living in it dont seem to have time to wonder and enjoy it, maybe they should travel abroad and then come back to see how beautiful their country actually is, even the houses and everything its like Im living a fairy tail of Henze and Kretzel

well then again if you have been living here all your life, do you stil have to be going around gasping your breath talking to yourself aloud, oh my god my country is the most beatifullest on earth, grasp from the helm of passer by and confront him or her too with the beautifullness of the surroundings, lol ! I quess the people know it but yet so much angry cursing roughinans here, not all that royal and eloquent speaking just lots of working class ppl who def dont appreaciate all this beautiness around them

Swindon


Milton Keynes


Dundee

Yeah. Total fucking fairy tale land.

And you need to shut the fuck up right about now before I drive down to South Hampton and educate you as to the wrath of of the working man.

okay okay, Im going to have to go out now to take pictures of Bedford, yes, I have been to Milton Keynes and I dont like that place, its too modern and it seems not to have history or character of any kind such as Bedford has (where I live btw) look, I cant really explain but I will go around to take pictures, its beautiful place for real !!!!!!!! besides why should I lie about it

I just hope I can take such pictures that will do it justice Im not much of picture taker, I mean I dont have much experience in taking photographs but lets see !!!!

My actual point was that I take issue with your description of most of Britain as filled with working class ruffians, who do not speak their own language well and are too stupid to appreciate their scenery.

No.

I make art, it makes me happy. When other people make art, I roll in it like a drunk kitten on a quilt saturated with catnip. What else about this topic matters to me?

Nothing worth mentioning.

Jesus, it's like everyone currently posting in this thread has suddenly ignored and/or forgotten the first 3/4 of it.

Here's a question for you folks: is hentai art?

SCOTUS says that, by defintion, pornography has no artistic merit. I should cite this but drunk + effart.

That's ridiculous. How does one define "pornography"? As someone pointed out earlier, a lot of art from the Renaissance until the end of the patronage system was (among other things) porn for wealthy noblemen.