Defining  Art

     The definition of art has broadened significantly over the last few centuries. Westernized societies on the growing path to enlightenment, no longer strictly adhered to earlier guidelines about what is considered art, and that which is not. Who decides what art is? Over the course of the past few centuries, many Artists rebelled against classical aesthetics and generated their own explanations. Art is what an Artist says it is. Art is an expression of the Artist, rather than pure formal aesthetic. Today, the identification of the Artist is submerged within each artwork. Usually, the Artist can be identified without difficulty, once an observer deciphers the subject matter. The Artist might also be identified when the viewer recognizes the artists’ personal binaries. Binaries in our society are common themes among works in a post-modern art world.

     Marcel Duchamp shocked audiences in 1917, displaying the first ready-made in an exhibit in New York City. Robert Smithson created environmental art, using raw materials of the earth. Rene Magritte painted a pipe and titled the work “ceci n’est pas une pipe” (this is not a pipe), confusing viewers and making them question how they saw art. Duchamp, Smithson, and Magritte rejected the philosophies of earlier Art Historians. Philosopher, Immanuel Kant, attempted to structuralize the definition of art. Kant argued form and aesthetic over expression. According to Kant, art must be functional and rational, and should promote form over content. Dadaist, surrealists, expressionists and cubists are examples of movements that challenged the older ways of thinking. Clearly, expression is art in contemporary times. In fact, there seems to be little or no limitations today. Art is an expression and an outlet for the manifestation of feeling and thought. Successful artworks today, are works that can communicate to other individuals. An effective artist can trigger an emotion in the viewer of their art.

     Technology is also playing a vital role in the development of how art is defined. Today there are graphic artists and photographers that also consider their works to be artwork, and are presented as such in

     Museums and galleries. Cindy Sherman is a feminist, and expresses her views through photography. Pascal Dombis created a digital art exhibition in 2008 titled “Irrational Geometrics”.

     As a result of defiant artists throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, art has evolved into an expression. A vast variety of individuals from all over the world are interacting with one another and learning from each other through technology. This new art movement, in cohesion with technological advances, is creating artists out of everyday ordinary people. Art is evolving rapidly, and where it will be in centuries to come is unpredictable.