The question “what makes art “art” has spark controversy for ages. It is a question that determines one’s opinion, suggestion, experience or feelings about art. It is unique and varies from one person to another. Therefore, I can say that there is no single definition of art. However, in my own view art is any piece of work that one is passionate about and it involves putting efforts and individual skills to express feelings, or rather to pass a certain message. Any person can create art at any time.
The concept of art can be likened to the famous saying that ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Thus, given the expression of this statement that what holds beauty for one person may not necessarily hold for another, the concept of art likewise depends on individual perception. Many will agree with me that a person recognizes a piece of art when he sees it. A famous potter from the US Supreme Court, when asked about the subject of pornography, admitted that he knows it when he sees it. In the same way, art can be recognized through appreciation. However, this does not mean that art would cease to be what it is if it is not appreciated, but art will still remain art for ages.
In my own opinion, what I consider as art is a great piece of artwork that presents a great skill. It does not necessarily have to have formal qualities, but what I would rather consider important in a piece of art is the artist’s efforts of creating the type of work in question and relating these skills with the exact feelings and thoughts of the artist at that particular time. If therefore the piece of artwork is strong enough to convince me that the artist’s skills, thoughts and feelings correlate with the outcome, then I would view it as a great and unique piece of art. For instance, in “traditional” artwork, I would look at the individual thoughts, feelings, and efforts at the time of coming up with the piece of artwork, the meaning behind it and if it is strongly pleasing to me, then if all these are fulfilled then it is a fabulous artwork.
Photography is a form of art that can be considered as a good example when explaining a great piece of art. For instance, a modern form of photography that embraces great artwork is the “He Got Game” by Robin Rhode, a South African artist in the year 2000 whereby 12 C-prints were face-mounted with Plexiglas were embedded on aluminum panels. These photographic artworks were done in the city of New York (Serrano 6).
In Robin Rhode’s “He Got Game” artwork, much of it was highly choreographed and filmed from an aerial angle, which makes one wonder how he was able to manage the exact bodily position. One acknowledges this great skill and gift in choreographed positioning as a form of art photography in creating drawing narratives because it appears not in one but several of his pieces of artwork. Thus it can not be perceived as a trial-and-error form of the training process.
Robin Rhode is famous for working in public spaces and surfaces such as walls, the streets and public basketball fields to come up with beautiful street art. He uses simple shapes and objects such as charcoal and paints and transforms them to create elements of narratives (Serrano 1). As a result, the majority of Rhode’s works have stood out due to their simplicity and formal clarity, something that has underlined the idea of luxury in the production of art. Some of his other famous artworks include the Stone Flag, Snake eyes and the Keys.
In general, art is unique and without a single definition. However, in simpler terms, it is any piece of work that an individual is passionate about and involves applying individual skill to come up with a great piece of work that makes it fabulous and unique to a viewer.
Works Cited
Serrano, Andres. “Interview: Robin Rhode.” InitiArt Magazine. Y & H Studio. 2010. Web.