First, let me mention that I can already tell that this discussion is going to take a long time. Please bear with me, everything I say is something that I think is important. If you have any thoughts along the way, please comment or let me know in some other way. And so we are off.
To begin, the first question that we have to ask is "What is Art?"
There are a hell of a lot of answers to this question. Some are thoughtful, some inspiring, some meaningful, some absurd, some limiting, and some abstruse. People talk about Art as Truth, or Beauty, or magic. About a year ago, I talked on this blog about Art as something that evokes a response, and something that helps the artist to understand themselves and the world. I've heard that Art is what Artists do, and also that Art is whatever Artists can get away with. Art is pretty much subjective, like what Potter Steward said about pornography-- it's difficult or impossible to define, "but I know it when I see it."
Personally, I think that this is my favorite quote on the subject:
"Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with Quality."
-Robert Pirsig
No comments:
Post a Comment