What is art? Well, it is quite a vague question with millions of answers depending on who you ask. To me, art is simply the display of self in different media although many could argue that this definition is too broad. But, this is my definition which I have discovered rather recently when I first found true art for the first time. In high school, I took a British Literature class and in that class we took a ten-day trip to Ireland, England and Wales. While in England, my friend wanted to go the National Gallery so we all begrudgingly went with him. As he was frolicking around mid-eighteenth century portraits, the rest of us were following him kind of like a husband following around his wife through Macy’s annual sale. We walked into another room and there it was: Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. I stood in front of that painting for the rest of the time that we were in the museum. The innocence in her eyes, the realism of her facial expressions, the detail of the pearl, it seemed as though the girl in the painting was looking at me and I sort of saw myself in her. Our eyes looked the same so it kind of freaked me out. When I looked at her face, it felt as though I could see into her soul (as cliché as that sounds.) Her eyes seemed like a gateway to Vermeer’s time. I imagined that my eyes were hers and that I was watching Vermeer paint. It was a complete outer body experience. Although I don’t know if the painting was intended to be more than just a portrait, I saw myself in it, exactly my definition.
One focus of Duve’s article was the idea of intention, meaning the reason as to why the artist made whatever they made. Anything can be art as long as the artist thought of some meaning behind it. Anyone can draw a line on a piece of paper but it is not art unless there is some meaning behind the line. Art is art as long as it is “always constant in its aim,” so anything can be art as long as it matches what it was intended to be. (Duve pg. 8) Whether art takes the form of a sculpture, film, painting, performance etc. if it successfully portrays the message that the artist wanted to it portray, it can be considered art.
1 comment:
Hi Stephanie,
When you say that art is display of self, do you mean that the viewer must see him/herself in the piece, OR do you mean that the artist is projecting him/herself in the piece. Either way, how would that apply to Duchamp's Fountain piece? Do you see yourself in it? Do you think Duchamp was portraying himself in some way?
It's interesting that you bring up intention with the de Duve article. Could you also connect that to the Vermeer piece? Do you think Vermeer was thinking about preserving a piece of his own time period? Do you think he was imagining a future where a person like you would be looking at his piece? What do you think he intended with this painting? And what about connecting Duchamp to de Duve? What do you think Duchamp's intention was with the Fountain piece, or the L.H.O.O.Q we saw in class?
I think you'll find as we hear about more art projects over the semester, sometimes the intention behind the work might be more interesting than looking at the piece itself.
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