A Look at Definitions 1

Over the next several posts, I will look at different art definitions and attempt to explain why I find them dissatisfactory.

When one searches “art” in Google, the Oxford dictionary definition comes up:

Art – the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculptures, producing works to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.

According to this definition, what does it take to create art? Human creative skill and imagination.

Human – it pertains to people.

Creative – that’s a sticky one that I will come back to later. For now here is the Oxford dictionary: involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to bring something into existence.

Skill is ability to do something, particularly to do it well, something that can take training or practice. I can tear a piece of paper, I can crumple it, I can fold it, or I can make it into a funnel. Maybe my first funnel is a little uneven, but with a few practices I get a perfectly shaped cone. Skill. Creative skill. I have sunflower seeds I need to store, I have paper – problem solved – create a funnel and put the seeds in there. (In my country of birth Bulgaria as a child, I would buy roasted sunflower seeds in tiny newspaper funnels for a dime – sellers were on every street corner! Then sit on the curb with a bunch of neighborhood kids and eat them, spit the shells, and watch the people – it was a favorite pastime). Creative skill. A human is capable of it. So far so good.

Imagination – it is defined as “faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses, the ability of the mind to be creative and resourceful.” The words “ideas” and “concepts” can be slippery, so let’s stick with images – the action of forming new images not present to the senses – something I don’t see with my physical eyes, yet I can form a picture of it in my mind.

Like I said, so far so good. We have a description of self-evident human ability. The second part is the result – producing works to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. 

Here is something I saw on my recent visit to The Broad (I wish I had written down the artist). Do you appreciate it for its beauty or emotional power?