What Is Art?
Chapter 1
Understanding Art
Learning Objectives:
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How do we define art?
What does it mean to be creative?
Why do we create art?
What is the nature of art?
What is the “function” of art?
How can we appreciate art?
Everyone wants to
understand art. Why not try
to understand the song of a
bird? Why does one love the
night, flowers, everything
around one without trying to
understand them? But in the
case of painting, people have
to understand.
–Pablo Picasso
Some “Truths” About Art
1. There is no agreed-upon
definition of art
2. Art does not necessarily have
to be beautiful
3. Art has been used to placate
the gods and to create order
and chaos
4. One contemporary artist sold
a 2-inch part of his driveway
as art
What Are the
Purposes of Art?
•Art Creates Beauty
1. Art adds beauty to our
lives by looking to nature
2. Western concepts of
beauty
3. Non-Western concepts of
beauty
•Art Creates Beauty
However, beauty is in
the eye of the beholder,
whether in Western
civilizations or nonWestern civilizations
“A Closer Look”
A Portrait in the Flesh
Sometimes artists try to
improve on nature – thereby
creating an alternative
standard
•Art Enhances Our
Environment
1. Art can delight our senses
2. Art can also create new
environments
•Art Reveals Truth
1. Art can replicate fine
details
2. Art can be used to trick
the eye
3. Art reveals the world
around us
•Art Immortalizes
1. Art immortalizes people
and events throughout
the ages
2. Art can bring people
“together” from
different periods of time
•Art Expresses
Religious Beliefs
1. The quest for immortality
2. Finding answers for the
unanswerable
3. Creating forms for the
unseen and housing them
•Art
Expresses Fantasy
1. Art serves as a vehicle
for our innermost
fantasies
2. Art can represent
images in our minds
•Art Stimulates
the Intellect and
Fires the Emotions
1. Art has the power to make
us think profoundly
2. Art can make us feel deeply
about something or
someone
3. We can reflect upon the
purposes of the artist
4. We search for the sources
of our own emotional
responses
ALL THE THINGS I KNOW
BUT OF WHICH I AM NOT
AT THE MOMENT THINKING–
1:36 PM; JUNE 15, 1969
–Wordwork
by Robert Barry
•Art Creates Order
and Harmony
1. Artists and scientists try to
find the underlying order of
nature
2. Compositions may be used
to create order and harmony
Art is harmony.
–Georges Seurat
“Compare and
Contrast”
The Piano Lesson(s) by
Matisse and Bearden
Creating harmony through
different means: searching for
balance
Can order ever pose
a threat to harmony and
psychological
well-being?
Laurie Simmons Red
Library does just
that!
•Art
Expresses Chaos
1. Harmony can presume
the existence of chaos
2. Chaos does not need to
have specific content
•Art Records and
Commemorates
Experience
1. Art can record and
communicate
experiences and events
2. Art can be used to
honor people and
commemorate events
3. Art can help us to recall
memories from the past
•Art Reflects
the Social and
Cultural Context
1. Art can record events of
social and cultural natures
2. Art can record experiences
from a specific time and
place
3. Art can reflect particular
fashions, trends, and beliefs
4. Art can also record various
states of the crafts and
sciences throughout time
•Art Protests
Injustice
and Raises Social
Consciousness
Art can achieve this by:
• Recording experiences
and objects of a certain
time and place
• Recording specific
cultural experiences
• Recording traditions
throughout time
• Creating time-capsules
with art
•Art Elevates the
Commonplace
1. Art represents certain
aesthetics of a period or
culture
2. Art can be readymades
or assemblages
•Art Meets the
Needs of the Artist
1. The need for “selfactualization”
2. Satisfying aesthetic needs
3. Satisfying emotional and
psychological needs
What Is Art?
Art provides
a stimulating opportunity
to explore the
various conditions of our lives
and experiences.
Art is the persistent quest for
beauty, for truth, and for
self-expression!
Discussion Questions:
• Why is there no single answer
to “what is art?”
• Who forms the “audience” for
works of art?
• What are the meanings of art?
• What are the purposes of art?
• What is the concept of art, and
why should we study art?