Damien Hirst, The Living Are Indifferent to the Dead, 1991
Why is that art? What does art really mean to us? How do we look at art? Is art conventional? Has art always been a fixed concept? And why isn't that art? So where are the boundaries of art?
Why is that art? And why isn't that art? Where are the boundaries of art? On many different occasions, the public's concept of art is actually very confused and vague, but it is ashamed to open and express, which is actually a very essential question, not only for the public, but also for theorists and artists.
Play Doh by Jeff Koons, 1994-2004
Art has never been determined
It is very clear that art has never been determined, including our confusion about art now, which is closely related to the new current flow of art, and the same is that in the past art was also uncertain, and there has never been such a thing as fixed art. When we go to the museum and see furniture, pottery, jade, bronze and other exhibits, we will not wonder, we all say that this is art. But in the primitive stage, these were not presented in the form of art, or there was no such concept at that time. In ancient China, these bronzes and other utensils in addition to the practical function of life, more is to give a ceremonial function, used to reflect the social dignity and inferiority relationship, social system, etc., but now it is reduced to art, with an independent aesthetic structure, in fact, is another functional output of modern social needs, from the side reflects the concept of art itself is changing.
Late Shang bronze beast face pattern
The public's doubts are about the art of the past, and there is a clear appreciation judgment in their minds, but the concept of the current art presentation is often unable to adapt, and even in art museums or art spaces, some people joke that those who see something abnormal are called art. Why is there such confusion? This is a feature of the development of art itself, the art of the present has completely subverted the existing concepts, Terry Barrett in the book "Why that is art" made a good analysis, he began to define art into two aspects: one is openness, the other is categorical.
Boyce's How to Explain a Picture to a Dead Rabbit acts in 1965
The definition of openness is actually no definition, the artist should have the courage to challenge the existing concept of art, in essence, is to oppose any definition of trying to find out the absolute essence of art, you want to find out such a definition, the artist is to oppose such a definition, the definition of openness to art is always in the search, always in the process of finding and breaking through, so everyone should break the existing mode of thinking about art, art does not have a concept of dust settled.
However, when it comes to categorical definitions, art still has some framework definitions, that is, the work of art is created by the artist consciously and conceptually, which is different from the general activities of ordinary people, and of course, the public's participation and reaction to this behavior. More importantly, art is to be contextual and systematic cognition, whether to include works of art, is the need for an art system to identify, this system includes critics, academies, galleries, art galleries and a whole set of systems; of course, this is confusing, even there are struggles and struggles. In this process of identification, you may wonder why some "works" cannot be identified, and you can also give some examples, which not only pose new challenges to the art world, but also redefine it as a new artistic direction, such as Duchamp's work (urinal) shocked the entire art world, and there is still a lot of controversy to this day.
Ready-made work by Marcel Duchamp, Springs, 1917
In fact, even if you go to the scene to see this work, in fact, it is a urinal signed Duchamp's name, but this work has a very far-reaching impact; back to the historical background of the time, it is difficult for us to express a sense of action in the painting, even if the person who expresses the work is also a frozen moment, it is also an action, in Duchamp's "Nude Woman Descending the Stairs" This work Has a lot of ghosting, like splitting wood to separate the person in the painting in half, and this work is simply unable to enter the mainstream salon exhibition in Europe at that time, Moving to the United States, because the United States is an emerging country, there is relatively little resistance to this, and this work was included in the New York Armory Exhibition, which still caused widespread controversy and criticism.
Marcel Duchamp's Nude Woman Descending the Stairs, oil on canvas, 1912
In this case, ordinary artists usually feel frustrated, Duchamp instead feels that the public reaction is part of the composition of important works of art, so in the next round of exhibitions, Duchamp was invited as the chairman of the jury, he felt that the time for revenge was up, so he put the urinal into the exhibition, thus causing an uproar, Duchamp used a very intuitive and rough way, provoked the art system and mainstream aesthetics of the time, because these systems have condensed into inherent meaning, including artists and organizational systems, Dramatically, the urinal, titled Fountain, is identified by the entire vein of art history at this crucial juncture, and of course, before him, impressionists and Van Gogh had attacked the perception of the mainstream system, but Duchamp's way of asking questions was particularly acute.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
Art moves towards philosophy
In 1964, Andy Warhol, an advocate of pop art, exhibited the work "Brilo's Box" for the first time, and when he put the copied and printed soap box on the exhibition hall, the public was extremely confused, including the famous philosopher and art critic Arthur Danto, this ordinary soap box caused him to constantly think: Why is such a box put in the art museum, it is art, how should we identify it? What are the existing standards when the previous standard fails?
Andy Warhol's The Box of Brilo, ready-made in 1964
By the standards of artistic reproduction, Andy Warhol's box is certainly not a reproduction, because artistic reproduction is the artist's reproduction of what he sees with a paintbrush; is it because the soapbox is better reproduced? This judgment is clearly incorrect. If this is obviously not true according to the criterion of the purity of the medium in modern art, that is, the pure abstraction that gradually does not have any artistic theme, because the soapbox itself is a figurative object, then why is this art? So what stage is art at this time?
Andy Warhol (1928–1987)
At this point, Arthur Danto believes that art is moving towards a philosophical stage, a post-historical stage, that is, the stage of the end of post-history, and the past history is more under the existing concept, through the system and system to produce identification behavior, so at this time the concept of art is always in a kind of wandering, constantly putting forward new challenges to us, we also have to look at the position of art in this change in the relationship between historical context and context.
Arthur M. Arthur C Danto (1924-2013)
Art has no necessary relationship with "beauty"
In China, the existing fine art and art is a subordinate relationship, but we often say that fine art, but is the pure art corresponding to the West, that is, the word "art", perhaps the translation of the misplaced relationship, the word "art" in the West, is not related to music, dance, architecture and other forms, we often say the word "fine arts", that is, art, but in China, as long as the word art is involved, music and dance art, etc. are mixed, so in order to reduce trouble, the word "fine arts" is used. But it has led to another problem, the word "beautiful" in art, many people cling to it, so there are many "you see this art is not beautiful at all" and so on.
To be precise, art and "beauty" have no absolute and inevitable relationship, when translating this "aesthetics" from the West, it is flawed, it is actually more about the knowledge of perception, that is, sensitivity, the feeling of a thing is beautiful or mutilated, the answer varies from person to person, not simply measured by "beauty" or "not beautiful".
In contemporary art, the work itself is not about aesthetics or aesthetic concepts, it is more of an experience, a sense of self and external world cognition, which also brings a new concept, the artist uses creativity to provide a new method and perspective, so "beautiful" or "sublime" can not simply meet this standard, such as when experiencing a certain physical limitation, the way used may be more cruel or bloody, reflecting a certain Zen or a certain loss of time, The way it is adopted may be relatively introverted, which is what kind of experience and perspective it wants to bring us, not the meaning of who is more ruthless than whom. Therefore, it is particularly important to transform the perspective to look at our own lives, ordinary people are in life, it is difficult to look at daily life, and artists are to provide a new way of thinking for the public, to help the public look at daily life and look at our world from another perspective.
Cang Xin's "Heaven and Man Unity Series - Circle of Fire" act 2003
Source of this article: Yidian Art
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