As stated by (Torres& Kamhi)"What is art? "--as well as the frequently appended question "Who decides? By their definition it is called art if it has been publicized in a book or magazine, bought by a collector or admirer or holds a place in a museum then it must be art. Art can also be defined as anything beautiful or aesthetically pleasing to the eye of the beholder as such this would be defined as fine art, a creation of work through imagination in which the artist creates a sculpture or painting on canvas could be defined as visual art.Art can be expresses in many different forms such as; dance, conversation and telling stories to name just a few.
(Free Dictionary N. D. ) The artist Salvador Dali was born in 1904 in Figueres, Spain. He had a significant following of admirers and one of his famous paintings, “The Persistence of Memory” has intrigued me. This particular piece of art is oil on canvas and is presented at the Museum of Modern art in New York.
“The Persistence of Memory “portrays melting watches, one which is covered in ants; half of the painting is in shadows, the other in sun and a partial face lying on the ground.There is an ocean scene in the background. What I believe makes this canvas a piece of art is the mystery behind brush. It is very difficult to understand what the true interpretation of this piece of art is, however it incites those that view it to try to interpret what the artist was trying to illustrate.
It is whatever you make of it; therefore it is your own creation of art. A couple other pieces of Dali’s art in my opinion that are worth viewing are “Metamorphosis of Narcissus” and “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man”. A sculpture of grand scale is the great pyramids and The Great Sphinx of Giza.This leviathan of sculpture in Egypt is a national symbol.
It was created with the head of a human and a body of a lion, made out of quarried rock or limestone. Imaginations still run wild as to the meaning behind the Great Sphinx. It is the most significant sculpture of its size ever made by man from rock aging back 50 million years. It is said that the Great Sphinx depicts many different interpretations of what it represents.
Some say it is power or that is symbolizes the sun as a sun god, but there is no real knowledge about the purpose of the Sphinx.It is an extraordinary work of art in just sheer size as well as amazement by millions of people from around the world. Scientist are still marveled at the design and purpose, but most just look at it as a wonder. Machu Picchu was an architectural design between two mountain peaks which over looked the Urubamba River. It has 3,000 steps which lead to multiple levels and was built across extremely steep terrain it contained religious monuments and caves and was believed to be a retreat for the emperor. The Inca’s used granite stones that were hand cut to precision to create this architectural monument.
As with any design of vision this is a true piece of art. Photography is in the eye of the beholder, it takes skill and luck to be in right place at the right time. A photograph that still resonates in my brain is “The power of one” this photograph won the Pulitzer award. It is a photograph of a single Jewish woman standing up against Israeli forces, it is a must see to truly soak up the courageousness of a lone sole. For me this is art at a very primal level of survival and as a woman that fights for everything that I hold true, I can feel this photograph in my soul.
Printmaking is a bit of a mystery to me as I have no knowledge of this type of art. In researching Printmaking I found that some of the first images of this were from caves where they placed their hands on the walls of the cave and blew pigment around which created a design an example of this could be the “Hand Print from Chauvet cave, 28,000 BCE. ”(Urton N. D. ) I find this very intriguing because my heritage as Native American Shoshone Indian and knowing that this type of art has long been part of our history and that they were telling a story with each drawing.The Chinese have been dentified as being the first to produce prints on paper with exquisite detail.
Conceptual art is a form that delivers a commanding message, but is said to hold no financial value. I believe that the value and the message are determined by the viewer. An example of conceptual art that I personally have viewed is the Cloud Gate or also known as the bean at Millennium Park in Chicago, IL designed by Anish Kapoor. This is a colossal stainless steel looking glass of sort and leaves every interpretation open to the viewer’s imagination some say it is like turning the world inside out.Installation art is a favorite of mine it beings the art to life in three dimensions as if you are with a living, breathing creation, using large open space and filling it with imagination. Street art installation is one that I find amusing and humorous such as; Surreal Scenes by Mark Jenkins.
He places headless, faceless bodies as well as animals or creations that are too large to ignore which can sometimes be disconcerting in the street or attached to buildings and even in parks.What I find amazing about some of this is some people stop to analyze and others walk on by as if it doesn’t exist. This type of art seems almost as though the viewer is in some psychological experiment to see how people respond. Performance art is literally about the expression of the artist themselves and what they are willing to reveal to the public rather it be political or taboo in nature, it is up to the public to choose to watch.
An example that I have also been witness to is the Blue man group; they are a perfect example of becoming the art that they are portraying.That is what performance art is about. They are theatrical and comedic in general, but seem to have a message behind each performance. They stay true to their roots in each performance and apply visually aesthetic theatrics to every show. For each art form listed in the aforementioned; art is something that is created from within an individual so each piece is unique and to narrow down one piece over another and say one is art and the other is not can’t be done.
To give examples of what exemplifies each as would be to possible say that some are not artist at all. The sea is vast with many types of art such as; African art, pacific cultures, Middle eastern, Native American, modern, contemporary, photography and baroque to name a few. Your child’s hand print in clay made in kindergarten art class, to the child who created it and the parent who receives it see’s art would it sell in a museum of modern art? This is the question to ask when we are determining what art is.
