What is Art?

After our discussion in class on Thursday I decided to think more about what is art. I googled "what is art?" and the first article that came up said that all art consists of two things: form and content. The author of the article stated that form includes:

1- the elements of art

2- the principles of design

3- the actual, physical materials that the artists has used

We discussed Robert Mapplethorpe's and Andres Serrano's photographs and I think everyone decided for themselves if they believe it to be art or not. Some people thought that the photos crossed "the line." What IS the line? How can anyone define what is art and what is not?

I think that all art has an intention and a purpose. It is something created thats sparks feeling or emotion in someone else. Those feelings can be positive or negative. I have seen a lot of art that I do not necessarily like or agree with. When I visited the Seattle Asian Art Museum during Spring Break there was a painting of a chicken struggling to fly in a city-like landscape. The painting was about the struggle of nature verses man made structures. The chicken's flight path was expressed like a flip book laid out on a table rather than bound together. You could see each step of the flight and it was obvious that the chicken was having a difficult time. I looked at the painting and immediately felt uneasy. In my mind that chicken should not be trying to fly around in a city. Indeed, that feeling of uneasiness was the emotion the painter intended. After reading the description I found that the intention of the painting was to express how difficult it is for nature and man to coexist.

I did not like this painting whatsoever. I would never put it on my wall or carry a picture of it in my wallet. However, it is still art. Sometimes I think people deem things as not art or as crossing the line simply because they do not like it or approve of its message. Such is true for the Mapplethorpe and Serrano paintings. I may not agree with all of the messages they are trying to express but I do recognize their work as art because it has a purpose and an intention.

A chair is a chair, and a urinal is a urinal but if they are presented as art, then there has to be some kind of intention behind that. What makes Marcel Duchamp's piece "the fountain" a piece of art is the name. I think that he was trying to get observers to look at a urinal in a different way. He didn't entitle the piece, "urinal" for a reason. Because he intended for the sculpture to be viewed as a different object with a difference purpose that makes it art, at least to me.