Hi. I have to write an essay about what art is and I'm struggling. Art is so subjective and vague. More importantly what separates great art from art? Xx
Oh, so sorry this is a few days late, but...
That is pretty tricky, because the definition of art varies greatly from person to person. Also, because this is a school assignment, you’ll want to research this a lot on your own. I would recommend looking at smarthistory.khanacademy.org under the tab ‘basics’. It covers a lot of very broad, open-ended questions like this.
I can give you on my opinion on what art is to me, because I don’t believe there is one true definition. To me, art is something that elicits a strong emotional reaction and reminds us of our own humanity. As wishy-washy as that sounds, I mean it. One of the most inspiring things about humans, I think, is our ability to create, whether that creation is a skyscraper, a temple, an altarpiece, or a sculpture.
If I look at a painting or a sculpture and it’s merely pretty, that’s great and all, but I want to feel something, you know?
For instance.
When I look at this painting:
I don’t love it because it’s aesthetically pleasing. I don’t really find it that pleasing at all, actually. The brushstrokes are more sloppy than the artist’s usual painting, and there is little attempt at rendering the crows accurately. The colors don’t blend very well, except towards the tops of the horizon. It doesn’t look finished, in my opinion.
However.
I love it, because it is the last painting that Vincent van Gogh painted before his suicide.
When I look at it, I see turbulence, violent colors and an ominous group of crows approaching. I see yellow, the color that he loved so much, depicted in such a dark, unpleasant way, that it fairly breaks my heart to see. I wonder what thoughts were going through his head as he painted this. And it hurts me, because it’s so obviously different from his other paintings. You can almost feel the pain he’s in.
That’s part of the reason why I’m so passionate about Gothic cathedrals, too. To me, that is great art. Those buildings will stand the test of time. I believe they will always inspire future generations with their sheer overwhelming power. That is what I crave, when I visit museums and buildings, to find art that chills me to the bone and stops me in my tracks and makes me shake my head in wonder.
This is probably a much longer answer than you wanted. I’m sorry. I tend to rant about these things. I hope that even vaguely helped.
