What is art?

[mike hinc]

The eternal question.............
Let's set the cat amongst the pigeons. Art is a secret traded for sea shells on the windswept shores of Ontology.
Discuss.

[Pennie Steel]

I once asked this question myself directed at a class of post grad students. Conclusion non conclusive and variable thank goodness. However in the process of the discussion a few quotable quotes came up.

Herbert Read '....art is the expression of an ideal which the artist can realise in plastic form'

Plato ' is a disruptive influence' (i like that one)

Duchamp '.. is what I say is art'

Dewey '..is what vivifies life'

Wollheim '...is international'

... and there a few from unaccountable sources!

I like yours best.

[dawn hilton]

Art is.............................

An Arrow of Time, in My Space, in My Time.

Dawn Hilton.xx

[mike hinc]

I like that Dawn. Very much. I almost wish I'd said it. I'm sure I will. Ha!!!

[dawn hilton]

mike hinc said:

I like that Dawn. Very much. I almost wish I'd said it. I'm sure I will. Ha!!!

Yeah, Mike.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[mike hinc]

An interesting point but by the same logic everything is anything - I don't think that stands up to scrutiny somehow.

[FrankSavages]

Art is: The reality of my innermost thoughts. Right at this moment Mike.

[FrankSavages]

My inner most thoughts in the past....strange arent they but a lot stranger if left unexorcised...that is art. Though a statement that broad is wisely as you requsted... Debated.

[mike hinc]

Neat but wrong.

[mike hinc]

Houdini said that magic was empirical, scientific and repeatable - otherwise he'd have died very very young. Do you think that art is empirical, scientific and repeatable, Paul?

[Abd A. Masoud]

Art for me is the way I express my feeling and thoughts in tangible object.
It is the dream which I live in my fantasy.
There are many faces for this coin (Art) and thanks god that every on of us found the right face of the coin which match her or him.
Nice day

[mike hinc]

Thanks Abd A Masoud - but why do you imagine anyone else should be interested in your feelings or fantasies - or mine for that matter?

Shouldn't art say something about humankind in general and if so shouldn't that be integral to any definition?

Otherwise we are all just shouting in a bucket.

Art can't be all things to all people, otherwise everything is art which means nothing is really. And difficult as it may be to agree on what IS Art - don't you find that we all know what's NOT art as soon as we see it!!

[Alex Ogilvie]

The word "is" (it is, to be) implies it exists... If I could find "art" and put "it" in a box, I'd sleep easier in my bed. I like the quote: Duchamp '.. is what I say is art'