When contemplating the significance of art, one may easily diverge from the subject at hand. Even when examining a solitary painting, one may swiftly find oneself in a state of disorientation, particularly if one delves too deeply into the narrative surrounding the artwork and the artist's intentions.
Art frequently presents a multitude of details that assert themselves prominently, inviting exploration of their underlying significance.
If you deal with the topic for the first time, the following questions often come to mind:
- What is the concept of art?
- Could that be classified as art? Or is it merely a superficial aesthetic?
- What kind of art is there?
- What is the meaning of art?
- What is art and what is not?
When considering the term "art", the majority of individuals naturally associate it with paintings and drawings that fall within the realm of visual expression. This encompasses photography, sculpture, architecture, and various forms of handicrafts. Theater, dance, and film once more occupy a significant place within the realm of the representative arts. Music and literature constitute integral components of the artistic realm.
In addition to these so-called beautiful arts and their cultural-historical consideration, there are also legal and philosophical levels of view that we will get to know in the course of this article.
These questions and classification attempts are also at the center of our interest as the editorial team of Kunstplaza. In this article we get to the bottom. Our intellectual journey leads us deep into art theory and to different considerations of the concept of art .
However, let us commence from the outset ...
Definition and etymology
image source: FreePik
The concept of art It is evident that initiating a website dedicated to creative endeavors, artists, artistic works, and galleries necessitates a foundational understanding of the term "art"
From an etymological point of view, the Oxford dictionary gives us the following information:
/Art (noun)/
Noun, feminine [die]
1a. Creative design from a wide variety of materials or with the means of language, the tones in dealing with nature and the world
"the visual arts"
1b. [without plural]
individual work, entirety of the works of an artist, an
epoch or the like; Artistic create "antiquity, modern, medieval, European art"
According to Wikipedia, art is above all:
“In the broadest sense, the word art refers to every developed activity that is founded on knowledge, practice, perception, presentation and intuition (healing art, art of free speech).
In the narrower sense, the results of targeted human activity are named, which are not clearly defined by functions. Art is a human cultural product, the result of a creative process.
The work of art is usually at the end of this process, but has also been the process itself since modernity. Experienced art in the narrower sense are called artists. "
DWDS also gives us an informative overview of meaning :
- Reflection of the manifold relationships of humans to their environment thru the creative shaping of things and processes of reality using sensually perceivable means and the works created thereby, especially in painting, sculpture, poetry, and music.
- the ability, the acquired skill, proficiency in a specific area
- [historically created term]
- sth. artificial created and not naturally grown
A comprehensive exploration of the notion of art within its historical framework
Art historians have classified art in a certain hierarchy for centuries. For a long time, the art of antiquity was regarded as the relevant art, on which all other movements and epochs had to be oriented.
A perfection was sought that ultimately remains unattainable. One expressed the highest level of idealization thru paintings and sculptures.
The fine arts and their forms of expression
Since the Enlightenment (approx. 1650 to 1800), art has been understood above all the forms of expression of the fine arts .
Above all, this includes:
- Fine art with the classic genres painting and graphics, sculpture, architecture and several small forms as well as since the 19th century the border area known as the arts or applied arts
- Music with the main parts composition and interpretation in vowel and instrumental music
- Literature with the main genera epic, drama, poetry and essayistics
- Representing art with the main areas of theater, dance and film
- Opera as a connection of all the arts: music, performing art (acting), visual arts (stage design), literature (poetry)
During the Enlightenment, paintings and books spread among a broader segment of the population. Theater performances, as well as musical and dance presentations, captivate their audiences in specially designed venues with technically sophisticated stages. Literature is considered an independent field within and alongside the arts and is significantly shaped by prominent figures such as William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller.
This list of the so -called beautiful arts is considered a classic categorization and does not claim to be complete. Numerous art movements have been added in the modern age, according to photography, radio or the Internet.
Toward Abstraction in Modernity
In the course of the 19th century, a gradual departure from an idealized conception in the visual arts began. There was a dynamic development that gradually escalated to abstraction, with color and line increasingly detached from the concrete object.
During this time, the artwork increasingly developed into something independent and independent, to the L'Art pour l'Art , whereby freedom of art is considered a central principle. Movements such as impressionism , expressionism and surrealism have a formative influence on painting from 1880 to 1920.
At first glance, abstract art may not be immediately understandable at first glance, yet it has secured a firm place and gained immense significance in the contemporary art world. Over this time, a shift in thinking also occurred in art history. Art can no longer be hierarchically ordered. No era is superior to another, and no artwork or style should be devalued, as artworks arise from specific artistic intentions.
In the 1920s, theater director Erwin Piscator and playwright Bertolt Brecht attempted a renewed functionalization of art. In this context, they invented the highly technical "epic theater."
Concepts in postmodernity
Art is generally understood nowadays as any activity or creation carried out by humans with a communicative or esthetic purpose—something that expresses an idea, a feeling, or more generally, a worldview.
It is an integral part of our culture and usually reflects economic and social substrates in its design. Art is nowadays a mutable concept of global significance that continuously allows for new interpretations. It is so fluid that it cannot be stopped.
Our contemporary view of art reflects the current time, but it also actively participates in cultural developments. By translating emotions and ideas into visual representations and making them visible to others, it actively participates in shaping and does not merely reflect passively. This creates a vibrant communication between the audience and the art, leading to a deeper understanding of many historical and societal places.
Artists have always developed their creative approaches and new means of expression to reflect or comment on their time. A notable example is the Pop Art of the 1960s. Using the vocabulary of mass media and advertising, this art movement reflected the consumer culture and the rapid pace of modern society.
Digital art brings fresh ideas to postmodernism with its 3D worlds (augmented and virtual reality), its video and sound installations, and its electronic literature—computer poetry, mobile novels, and enhanced e-books. mirrors These new forms of art mirror the continuous exploration of the boundaries of artistic production as well as a statement on the current technological advancement.
Digital art presents a challenge to continuously rethink and expand our perspective on art and creativity. It offers an impressive perspective on future artistic design and inspires us to explore the possibilities of modern technologies.
If one follows from this, art can be interpreted as a lively dialog that directs our understanding of the past and the reflection of the present. In this sense, it motivates us to delve deeper into the subject, whether thru viewing art, visiting exhibitions, or studying additional sources of information.
Philosophical considerations
Image source: Freepik
At this point, we would like to endeavor to understand the thoughts of famous thinkers regarding the philosophy of art.
- According to Plato, art was only the manual implementation of a copy of an object, which in turn represented a copy of the idea of the object itself, which was only visible to philosophers.
- In contrast to Plato, who regarded her as a copy of an existing copy, Aristotle something new in her: "The art creates all those things whose form previously existed in the mind."
- Benedetto Croce considered the work of art as a form of lyrical intuition that unfolds in the mind and can be clearly differentiated from its material implementation and implementation.
- Kant, on the other hand, was firmly convinced that art is determined by a variety of clearly recognizable and formal characteristics. These characteristics can be recognized thru specific mental abilities such as taste and esthetics, thereby evoking pleasure.
Famous philosophers like Plato and Kant have each made their own assessments and formulated definitions for the concept of art as well as for the classification of artworks. This illustrates that this term has always evoked emotions and sparked great interest.
He is inseparably connected to humans because he influences their perception of reality.
What is art and what is not? A legal classification
In addition to the definition of the word, it is still interesting to know that artists and creative creations in Germany and many other western countries enjoy freedom of art; In Germany, this is a fundamental right protected by the constitution (Art. 5 Para. 3 S. 1 GG).
There are several concepts of art in legal science. The legal evaluation of what is considered art depends on which definition one uses and how one interprets it.
First of all, it should be emphasized that we are free to personally call what we consider art as such based on our personal opinion, without it having any objective validity. The state does not have the authority to define art.
There should be no state authority that decides what is considered art and what is not. The state must not presume to determine which forms of art are acceptable or what their quality level should be.
Nevertheless, it is necessary for art to receive a certain definition for legal reasons in order to enable the actual implementation of artistic freedom. This definition serves as the basis for its application in court proceedings and legal matters. For this reason, various fundamental concepts were developed:
a) formal concept of art
According to the formal concept of art, it is defined that anything can be considered art if it can be assigned to a specific art movement. Examples of this include painting, sculpture, and theater. Hybrid forms should also fall into this category.
b) Material concept of art
The Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) has defined the concept of art in terms of content. Accordingly, it is considered the creative design in which impressions, experiences and experiences of the artist are immediately visualized through a specific design language.
Or to put it differently:
Art is the free and creative design, in which the artist immediately expresses his impressions, experiences and experiences through a certain formal language. ”
c) Open concept of art
According to the prevailing view, a flexible concept of art should be used. The open concept of art defines the characteristic feature of an artistic expression as the ability to derive increasingly profound meanings thru continuous interpretation due to its diverse content.
This creates a practically inexhaustible and multi -stage mediation of information.
d) teaching of third -party recognition
Accordingly, art captures what an informed outsider would refer to as such.
Artificial intelligence (AI) - Can machines create art?
Recently, developments in digital technologies and artificial intelligence significantly shape the art landscape and put the contemporary concept of art on the test.
The question of whether can create real art
The question of the creation height in creative design and the copyrights must still be clarified with regard to the production of art by machines and algorithms.
According to the Duden is an act of creative design . This does not rule out the use of algorithms, especially since Aristotle already provided a comprehensive definition of the term over 2,000 years ago:
Art completes what nature cannot achieve, or imitates it. ”
The Greek universal scholar emphasizes an important artistic activity in particular with the last part of his statement, namely copying . In doing so, he refutes millennia before the invention of AI one of the most important arguments against the artistic use of artificial intelligence: namely that AI cannot be creative, but only imitated their learned styles.
As a result, common definitions do not rule out that machines can also produce creative creations. Especially since people who consume art often do not even even not even recognize " man -made " , " machine -made "
How does generative AI see art? An experiment for visualization
An interesting experiment with the generative AI tool "Neuroflash" provided us as an interpretation of the text request (prompt) " A Visualization of the Definition of Art Itself From An Aesthetic, Formal and Philosophic Point of View, Abstract, Surrealistic, Fantasy, Open" as text-to-imag image generator:
These three visualizations of an abstract concept through an artificial intelligence provide an incredible depth of detail, which only fully opens up when viewed for a long time.
I hope I have made it easier for you to enter the world of art with this concise yet clear definition of art.
Source directory:
Literature:
- The Great Oxford Dictionary , Third Edition, Cornelson Verlag, ISBN-10: 0194406067
- Michael Hauskeller : What is art?: Positions of aesthetics from Plato to Danto , ISBN-10: 3406657095
- Reinold Schmücker: What is art? A foundation, Klostermann Rederei, Volume 70, ISBN-10: 3465041976
- Stefan Jordan / Jürgen Müller : Basic terms of art science (Reclams Universal Library), ISBN-10: 3150195594
- Susanna Partsch : Introduction to studying art history , ISBN-10: 3150143020
- Hildegard Kretschmer : Lexicon of the symbols and attributes in art: 800 entries , ISBN-10: 9783150195666
Web:
- Academy Kraatz-just understand Jura : What is art and what is not?, Https://akademie-kraatz.de/de/was-ist-kunst-kunst-und-was-nich
- DWDS - The digital dictionary of the German language, https://www.dwds.de/
- Laws on the Internet : Art 5 GG-individual standard, https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_5.html
- Wikipedia : Art
Owner and Managing Director of Kunstplaza. Journalist, editor, and passionate blogger in the field of art, design, and creativity since 2011. Successful completion of a degree in web design as part of a university study (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expressive painting, and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.
