Does Art (capital A) exist?

[Doug Nelson]

I just finished watching Art School Confidential (very good movie, btw) and it brought up an interesting point: can one be an Artist and create Art, or is it just varying degrees of craftsmanship and popularity?

[Frank Lopes]

Interesting question...I think the answer is yes.

What differentiates art from craftsmanship, is the degree of "originality or uniqueness" of the work. Also, popularity plays a small role in art, unlike craftsmanship where, in addition to precision of execution, it is one of the corner stones of the work. Most artists, tend to create art as a way of expressing themselves. If the art is popular or not, is something that will come afterwards.

Off course these are very vague concepts that are hard to quantify. How long ago a piece was made, by whom, the subject, the culture that it came from and the individual admiring it, all play a role in defining if something is "art" or just a wonderfully crafted piece.

My 2 cents...

Originally Posted by Doug Nelson

I just finished watching Art School Confidential (very good movie, btw) and it brought up an interesting point: can one be an Artist and create Art, or is it just varying degrees of craftsmanship and popularity?

[Duv]

"In order to define art correctly,you need to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of intercourse between humans.

Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing the art, and with those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression.

Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them..then it is art." Tolstoy

I guess then if you accept Tolstoy's definition, we are all artists (it is a human condition) and our Art varies in strength by the richness of our personal experiences, and how others receive and emote to it.

Dave