Post #206138 by Gigantalope on Fri, Jan 6, 2006 7:00 PM

When one enters art school "what is art" is given and re-given as the topic you write essays about. I believe the idea is to keep informing the student that he/she is wrong simply to see if by Junior Year, they have the fortitude to keep getting rejected.

There is of course no answer.
There are onions and that's the great part where the nasty name calling comes in.

It seems to have nothing to do with the actual skills of the person who did the pieces (Or as is often the case like with Jeff Koons who had them fabricated or collected said pieces)

A piece of a Palm Tree that looks exactly like a woman's lower torso is as much a piece of art when looked at as a Roussou painting, or the soap made from humans in concentration camps, a cross in a jar of urine, or a bison painted on a cave wall in Lascaux. It never stops amazing me how much people like pulling the rug out from each other, or attacking something as not being art.

It seems to be more the object's ability to stir emotion....which all of those things do when noticed or viewed in a certain fashon. Both pleasant and vulgar images work...

One other thing that was touched on...everybody being an ARTIST...it really is bullshit...the word is so overused it really has mutated to nothing. Further, the seemingly lower status of "Craftsman" as being below or less than Artist is irksome.

It seems like a less glamorous version...like for Artist who have to work for a living, and can't throw-up on their patron's are reduced to being Crafts People.

Rant rave

Great topic