Understanding contemporary art
What is art ?
A philosophical definition
Abstract: For art to be art it has to present the viewer with a distinctly out-of-the-ordinary perspective on everyday reality. Art is to be clearly differentiated from all forms of decorative craft, which are essentially concerned only with aesthetic experiences. Art is essentially about finding ways, through the manipulation and orchestration of presentational media — such as painting, sculpture, literature, film, and performance — to bring to life strange and unusual perceptions. All these media are quasi-theatrical and poetic in nature, in that they are essentially gestural, referential, and symbolic, and they present material in a condensed and allusive form. Andy Warhol’s work is an example of the theatrical manipulation of presentational media to create a strange and unusual universe.
Introduction
It is widely believed that ‘art’ is impossible to define (see for example, Witcombe, 1997). This is because the sheer range of diverse objects and performances currently on display do not seem to share any common characteristics; and classical standards of beauty and form have been abandoned by modern art, making consensus difficult. There seems to be no chance of even a basic phenomenology of art, let alone any kind of theory which would…
