The Meaning Of Art

It is difficult to classify exactly what art is. A beautifully rendered portrait would often be considered art, unless it is mass produced and sold as decorative accessories on a large sale. On the other hand, a bowl or cup or any other functional item, if crafted solely for display purposes, might be considered art. The problem of how to define whether or not a work is art has become particularly political, especially with governments often funding artistic endeavors with taxpayer money.

Defining art became especially difficult in the twentieth century, when photography gave humanity the ability to capture the almost perfect essence of a situation. Up until this point art had often been judged based on its ability to replicate reality. Once cameras, and later video recording devices became widespread, the ability of someone to reproduce reality was no longer as important as ideas of message, emotion, and meaning.

Noted British philosopher defined the problem of art as having three separate approaches. The realist approach assumes that art and beauty are independent values. According to the realist there is a standard of what is art that is independent of humans, and thus universal.

By contrast the Relativist believes that the definition of art is determined entirely by human experiences and values. In this system a work of art in one culture, would not be a work of art in another and what one person sees as beauty could be defined by another as merely an object.

The third, objectivist view defines art as being subject to both human and independent criteria. This school of thought is the compromise between the other two extremes. For an objectivist art is pure, and its definition is largely independent of personal points of view. However, it is influenced by the shared experiences of all human cultures and societies.

For different philosophers, art has different meanings. For some it is merely a form of mimeses, or the replication of other things in reality. This is especially predominant in ancient classical theories, such as those of Aristotle.

For others such as Leo Tolstoy, art is a form of indirect communication, whereby messages are transmitted in a representational manner. Others view art not as merely communication, but as the transmission of feelings and emotions through a physical medium. In this way art exists largely in the mind of the creator.

In more modern times the definition of art has been heavily influenced by the thinker Immanuel Kant. His ideas of personal reality, and independent perspectives, are vital to the understanding of how we see, react, and interact with the world. According to Kant the only thing we can know is how we react to an object, and we cannot know anything objective about the object itself. In this way art actually exists as much in the mind of the viewer, as it does in that of the creator.

Defining art is one of the most difficult philosophical challenges that we face. Everybody has an opinion on beauty, and most of these opinions contradict one another. When you incorporate money, politics, and power into the equation, it becomes difficult to see an integrated definition being illuminated any time soon.

About the Author:

This article was written by style philosopher Joey Pebble on behalf of his original line of natural stone home décor products. This unique collection includes a wide variety of elegant and functional decorative pieces, for the home or office, crafted from real pieces of natural, mountain born stone.