What is “Art”?

Photographer and author, Eric Bennett recently asked a question on InstaGram, “Is photography art?” to which I responded, “What is ART?”

No really, what is ART? I'm not even sure if there is an objective definition of ART, and even then, who gets to decide what that definition is? Does the person creating a thing decide if it’s ART? What if no one else agrees, is it still ART? If the person creating it only intended it to be documentary or functional, can others overrule the creator's intent and call it ART anyway? Where does ART even come from? Is it an immutable quality inherent in the work, or is it something transcendent and hidden deep within that is bestowed upon the work during its creation by the "artist" or possibly during the very act of viewing the work by others? Can ART even exist on a wall as a painting or photographic print or as a sculpture on a pedestal, or only in the mind of the one beholding it?

The Stairway

Obviously I ended up going off some existential cliff there and lost perspective, but feeling inspired by Eric’s question, I decided to explore this topic further. Now let’s see if we can get some clarity. The internet, as always, is sure to have the answer, and defines art this way:

“The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

Now this is all well and good if we want a definition of the word “art”, but I want to know what ART means, and to do that, we need to pull out our telephoto lens, and zoom into the finer details of the scene that can become lost by taking such a broad view. I’ve underlined some of those details I’d like to get a closer look at. Maybe in the end, we can stitch it all together and get something with a bit more resolution. Did I take that photography metaphor too far? Yeah, it was a last-minute addition (I don’t think I was supposed to tell you that).

So ART begins with an expression of imaginative creativity, meaning it must convey something; it is ‘transmissional’. But that expression must be unique to the one expressing it, for it is creative and imaginative. Creativity and imagination spring from often unknown sources deep within a person. But whether known or not, creativity and imagination are intensely personal and carry with them the essence of the creator.

But this is only the first half of the definition, the ‘production’ side of the ART coin if you will. There is also a ‘perception’ side that I think is often more important than the first; for can something be ART if it is never experienced? Here we see that the perception of ART evokes appreciation, and to appreciate is to “fully recognize and understand the implication of something,” that is, beyond just what something is saying, but what it is meaning. What is the implication, the significance of the thing? What affect does it have on the world?

This process of ‘perception’—gathering the full meaning of—I think leads to the other definition of appreciation, “to increase in value.” Here we see that the act of understanding the meaning of a work, feeds back upon it to increase its worth. It’s a recognition—an acknowledgement—of why something exists, not just what it is.

Finally, we see that what is being appreciated is beauty and emotional power, the ‘why’ of the thing. That seems pretty straight forward, seeing how everyone agrees what’s beautiful. Basically, beauty is a “combination of qualities that evokes pleasure,” with pleasure being a “sensation of feeling satisfied.” So there is a satisfaction of emotion. Not reasoned out, but felt intuitively, instinctually. It is a satiation of unrealized desire, a fulfilling of unknown want. ART satisfies that longing inside us that we didn’t know was there. Often I think it can ‘create’ that hole by pealing back the façade we’ve created to mask our emptiness and hide it from ourselves. Art is not only ‘transmissional’, but also ‘transformational’.

So, what is ART? My conclusion is this; ART comes into being when the essence of one person, that has been conveyed through their unique creation, simultaneously reveals and satisfies the unknown longing in another. ART is a filling of the hole we didn’t know was there, for ART isn’t a thing at all, but an event; it’s a verb not a noun. ART is an action of realization that emotionally impacts the viewer. It’s what a piece of work DOES, not what it IS. ART is a communication from one to another that creates wholeness.

So, is photography ART?

Thanks to Eric for the inspiration for this post.