What is Art?

What is Art?

Many argue that art cannot be defined. Some would say that art is an activity or product possessed in ability to express aesthetic and form to be communicated to others.

Leo Tolstoy (1896) does not describe art in terms of its ability to express form and beauty, but art as explicit to moral values and concepts. He says that Art is not merely an aesthetic beauty to be spectated, but as a form of communication, an expression of activity and experience and an expression of human condition. He says that is a sharing of expression, sharing a meaning that is understood by most people but he also claims that interpretation and criticism is irrelevant and unnecessary as all good art should express feelings that everyone should understand.

Tolstoy believes that art is good if it is judged to be good by the majority of people. Indeed, he claims that a great work of art is only great if it can be understood by everyone.[1]

Plato ( Republic) describes art as being imitations of the real world, imitating the events and objects of ordinary life.

Aristotle's theory on art examines art as a productive science. As with Plato,  Aristotle attributes Art to the origin of art to the human affinity for imitation. He describes children learning by imitation and that it is natural for us to delight in works of imitation as adults.

Aristotle presented three methods for classifying art based on the idea of art as imitation. The first method involves a difference in the means of imitation. In the first chapter of Poetics, Aristotle wrote, "Just as color and form are used as means by some . . .and the voice is used by others; . . .the means with them as a whole are rhythm, language, and harmony.'

Whether or not we agree with Aristotle and Plato that Art is merely a product of imitation, we cannot judge Art solely as an imitation of life, a whole class of abstract works would not be considered art. Cubism and Pop Art are two types of art that have many valuable characteristics, but are not realistic imitations of nature. I see the 21st century scientific practice of  cloning as true representations of imitation but I do not see Dolly the sheep as an product of an artistic endeavour. 
The creativity and social implications demonstrated in many works of art are not considered in Aristotle's theory. Imagination and creativity aren't given the credit they deserve. The originality of an idea should be considered in evaluating its artistic merit.

I wanted to see what my friends thought about art. I created a message on my Facebook page questioning  WHAT IS ART?

Below are some responses, these responses coming from people from ll aspects of life.. a teacher in Thailand, a lecturer in LIT, a computer programmer... I think this is important as art is open to all, it is not just available to an elite society of artist groups, but in fact it is open to all. unfortunately this society does exist.

Paula wrote: "A work of art is an adventure of the mind."

Noelle wrote: "Not something I can do!"

Maria wrote: "it think it's something that catches our imagination and makes us think."

Maria also wrote: "I think it's what catches our imagination on some way."

Adrain wrote: "I'd say it's an artists view on reality"

Liam wrote: "An introspective realisation of an extrospective world".

Stephanie wrote: "Art is an expression of someones feelings and imagination using colour and different materials ".

[1] Leo N. Tolstoy, What is Art?, translated by Almyer Maude, New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1960, p. 96

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My readings

I have being getting through a long reading list. The more  I read the more I discover, when is obvious in itself, but people have been working out ideas for decades about subject that i am new to be now. Going through these books i have discovered that each of them are connected in some way or another, which makes my practice somewhat easier. But it comes back to my argument again of elitism.  focusing my attention to Social Practice but  getting drawn towards urbanism, psychogeography, mapping and any artists involved in these practices.