what is art? & aesthetic value

WHAT IS ART?

Art comprises a diverse range of human activities involving the creation of visual, auditory, performing, artifacts which express the creator's imagination, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

Other activities related to the production of works of art include art criticism and art history. The three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture, and architecture. In addition there is music, theatre, film, dance, performance art, as well as literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of the arts.

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WHAT IS AN OBJECT "ART"? 

 

1. SKILL, is the proficiency developed through training or experience at the specific art form.

2. CRAFTMANSHIP, is the ability to excel at one's proficiency. 

 

3. ORIGINALITY, is the ability to innovate when necessary. 

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Why Heute cuisine is an art form (in 3 points)

 

Increasingly, crafts, and heute cuisine (characterized by the meticulous preparation and careful presentation of food at a high price) are considered art manifestations. Why is Heute cuisine an art form? "Heute" goes back to 17th century. 

 

1. Classic Haute Cuisine distinguished itself from regular French cuisine by what was cooked and served such as foods like tongue and caviar, by serving foods such as fruit out of season, by making it difficult and time-consuming to cook, and by using exotic ingredients not typically found in France. The 17th-century chef and writer La Varenne marked a change from cookery known in the Middle Ages, to somewhat lighter dishes, and more modest presentations. In the 18th century, Antonin Carême also published works on cooking, and although many of his preparations today seem extravagant, he simplified and codified an earlier and even more complex cuisine.

 

2. Characteristics of Classic cuisine: Georges Auguste Escoffier is a central figure in the modernisation of haute cuisine since 1900, which became known as cuisine classique. It was practised in the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe and elsewhere for much of the 20th century. The major developments were to replace service à la française (serving all dishes at once) with service à la russe (serving meals in courses) and to develop a system of cookery, based on Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire, which formalized the preparation of sauces and dishes. In its time, it was considered the pinnacle of haute cuisine, and was a style distinct from cuisine bourgeoise (the cuisine of affluent city dwellers), the working-class cuisine of bistros and homes, and cuisines of the French provinces.

 

3. Nouvelle cuisine (20th century). Nouvelle cuisine rebelled from Escoffier's "orthodoxy" and complexity. Nouvelle cuisine describes the cooking of Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Michel Guérard, etc. It puts emphasis on natural flavors and the freshest possible ingredients, preparation is simplified, heavy sauces are less common, as are strong marinades for meat, and cooking times are often reduced. Nouvelle cuisine was a movement towards minimalism and it is less extravagant. Menus are short. Dishes use more inventive pairings and rely on inspiration from regional dishes

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Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the FINE ARTS are separated and distinguished from DECORATIVE OR APPLIED ARTS.

Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964, MOMA

AESTHETIC VALUE

OBJECTIVISM is the position that art has objective properties.  SUBJECTIVISM denies objective criteria.  Instead, art is in the eye of the beholder (a matter of opinion). INTERSUBJECTIVISM is the position that art is a bit of both objectivism and subjectivism. 

FORMALISM: Art form refers to the elements of art that are independent of its interpretation or significance. It covers the methods adopted by the artist and the physical composition of the artwork, such as color, contour, dimension, medium, melody, space, texture, and value.  Form may also include visual design principles, such as arrangement, balance, contrast, emphasis, harmony, proportion, proximity, and rhythm. These notes can be observed by any individual. 

INTENTIONALISM: Authorial intention plays a decisive role in the meaning of a work of art, conveying the content or essential main idea. Intentionalism defines the subject as the persons or idea represented and the content as the artist's experience of that subject.

Jackson Pollock, Number 5, 1948.

What's the idea behind Pollock's Number 5, above?

In 1946, William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published a classic and controversial essay entitled "The Intentional Fallacy", in which they argued strongly against the relevance of an author's intention, or "intended meaning" in the analysis of a literary work. For Wimsatt/Beardsley, the words on the page were all that mattered; importation of meanings from outside the text (in this case painting) was considered irrelevant, and potentially distracting.

All this takes us to the idea of MEANING, that is to say, what's behind the image, or what "supports" what we see, read, or listen to. 

MEANING: 

Rene Magritte, This is not a pipe, 1929.

What's the meaning of the painting above, by French artist Rene Magritte? The title of the painting "This is not a pipe" seems to throw one off. It's clearly a pipe. So, what is Magritte doing? Is this a joke?

One problem about abstract art is that it's difficult to understand any meaning behind it. 

Michael Conrads, Untitled, 2007.

Abstraction in painting and sculpture is a move away from the idea of finding meaning in art. 

Carl Andre, Equivalent VIII, 1964.

 What's the meaning behind Andre's piece above?  Wouldn't it be better to talk about Formalism here?

SKILL, CRAFT: Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium or the developed and efficient use of a language to convey meaning with immediacy or depth. THUS: THE READY MADE:

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917,  Tate Museum.

For example, the piece above, Fountain, doesn't exhibit a particular craft. It's just a urinal that Duchamp found and signed "R. Mutt" (who was the actual factory brand of the urinal) and exhibited in a show in 1917.  Duchamp called this kind of artwork READY MADES. 

Is this art? 

As you can see, Fountain is at the Tate Museum in London. It's considered art by art critics, collectors, art historians. Again, we face the issue of ART CONSENSUS. 

If art is man-made, it seems that Fountain IS NOT ART. And yet, according to philosopher Arthur C. Danto, what distinguishes art from non art cannot be perceived in the artwork itself. For Danto objects are artworks if they are situated in a particular artworld. 

EXPRESSIVE THEORY OF ART: Art can be defined as an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations of the artist. Certainly, the artwork exhibits 

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, National Gallery.

The painting above, The Scream, by Edvard Munch, showing a man with an agonizing face, has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolising the anxiety of the human condition. 

Munch recalled that he had been out for a walk at sunset when suddenly the setting sunlight turned the clouds "a blood red". He sensed an "infinite scream passing through nature". Scholars have located the spot to a fjord overlooking Oslo, and have suggested other explanations for the unnaturally orange sky, ranging from the effects of a volcanic eruption to a psychological reaction by Munch to his sister’s commitment at a nearby lunatic asylum.

Does it matter that we know these expressive facts about the artwork?