What is Art?How does one recognize Art?
Is this Art?
Wrapped Coast
By Christo
Just a normal urinal
Brillo Box
By Andy Warhol
Marie Osmond &Child – Christmas Decoration
Is this Art?
Seated Woman
By George Segal
Readymade
By Marcel Duchamp
Michael Jackson & Bubbles
By Jeff Koons
Bull’s Head
By Pablo Picasso
Is this Art?
Wax Fingers
By Anna Blackmore
Chocolate bunnies
Plaster cast of a victim from Pompeii
Yoyo stand
Is this Art?
Just a can of Campbell’s Soup
Just an office stool
House tented for termite fogging
Luncheon in Fur
By Merret Oppenheim
Can we define art by its function?
Aesthetical – Art is created to please
Personal – Art is a means of personal self-expression
Informative – Art is produced to illustrate
Ideological – Art is meant to persuade
Economical – Art is a business
Functions of Art Aesthetical – Art is created to please
Henri Matisse: Pastoral (1905)
Functions of Art Personal – Art as a means of self-expression
Jan Zrzavý: Self-portrait (1907)
Functions of Art Informative – Art is produced to illustrate
Giotto: Fresco in Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi (1297-99)
Functions of Art Ideological – Art is meant to persuade
Taras Gaponyenko: Back to Mother (1935)
Functions of Art Ideological – Art is meant to persuade
Man-made famine in Ukraine (1932-33)
Guide for the Nazi exhibition of so
called Degenerate art (1937)
Art itself becomes an object of Ideology
Functions of Art Economical – Art is a business
Jan Kotík: Money Talks IV (2002)
As means of expression and communication
As a text
As a system of signs
Art can be defined
If art is a system of signs, does it mean that everything could become art?
Are there any limits?
Herman Nitsch: Orgies and Mysteries Theatre
Robert Mapplethorpe: Joe, New York, 1976
Are there any limits?
Alexander Brener: Dollar sign sprayed on
Malevich’s painting White Cross (1997)
Protests against IMF – Prague 2000 Proclaimed as art by Alexander Brener
What is Art then?“A work of art is anything that is said to be a work of
art by people who ought to know.”Sylvan Barnett
Who are these people?
Artists
Art-historians
Art dealers
Gallerists
Etc.
Alfred H. Barr: Cubism and Abstract ArtDiagram for a catalogue (1936)
Are cave paintings objects of art history or archeology?
Deer, Niaux (circa 13 000 BC)
Master Theodorik: Holy Ram, Karlštejn Castle, Chapel of the Holy Cross (1365)
Art object or Cult object?
Screen for ancestor shrine Kalabani, Igbo, Nigeria
Art object or cult object?
Armory Show, New York, 1913
Art and its context
Marcel Duchamp: Fountain (1917) Exhibition of the Society of the Independent Artists
Sherrie Levin: Fountain After Duchamp (1991)
Richard Long: Walking a Line in Peru (1972)
Leaving the Museum
Keith Arnatt: Keith Arnatt Is an Artist (1972)
Embracing the concept
Gillian Wearing: Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say And Not Signs
That Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say (1992-93)
Leaving the artist aside…
Illumination of S. Augustin’s De Civitate Dei (second quarter of 12th c.)
Status of the Artist
Arnold Böcklin: Self Portrait (1893)
Status of the Artist
David Černý: Artist Standing (1995)
Status of the Artist
Jeff Koons: Hand on Breast (1990)
Status of the Artist
Janine Antoni: Loving Care (1992)
Status of the Artist
Description and Analysis
“Until one tries to write about it, the work of art remains a sort of aesthetics blur … After seeing the work, write about it. You cannot be satisfied for very long in simply putting down what you felt. You have to go further.”
Arthur Danto: Embodied Meaning
(1994) “Eye does not mirror but takes and makes.”
Nelson Goodman: The Languages of Art (1968)
“Looking is not as simple as it looks.” Ad Reinhardt
Description and Analysis
To get the meaning you have to interpret the subject matter, the form, the material, the sociohistoric context, and (if known)
artist’s intentions.
Analysis = Concerned with cause and effectHow does the work mean
Meaning x Meanings
Different for the Artist and for the Audience(s) in various times and cultures
Josef Václav Myslbek: Saint Wenceslas (1900-24)
Subject matter x Content
David Černý: Saint Wenceslas (1999)
Subject matter x Content
Michelangelo: Creation in Sixtine Chaple (1508-12)
Technique and its material qualities
Composition and its effect
Color and its effect
Light and its effect
What was the purpose of the work?
Artemisia Gentileschi: Judith and Holofernes (circa 1620)
Gustav Klimt: Judith and Holofernes (1903)