Introduction
It's a curious thing, to teach a subject that cannot be defined. And yet it is precisely how it is defined that will shape student engagement and understanding.
I find that most definitions and understandings come from a continuous use of the term "Yes, Art can be that too!", evolving progressively through the mind of the student without setting any attempt to define it even broadly.
The following video from Tate, is an excellent resource to begin this conversation with students. This is a all to action that expresses the importance of art in schools:
However, it is the goal of this inquiry to weigh concise and enigmatic definitions of our subject. After looking through various attempts to define art to understand its boundaries, I have found that more poetic definitions to convey profound understandings of the abstract concept that is art. I hope that here you will find something that resonates with you.
Below, I will present definitions and anecdotes offered about Art throughout history, discussing each of them. These definitions can be used to generate conversations in the classroom and help ourselves as educators to grasp the parameters of that which we teach.
Art is undefined
"Art, (n). This word has no definition."
Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary, 1906
When faced with a challenge, such as to define an abstract concept, sometimes even giving up offers profound thought. Perhaps it is impossible to define it, or perhaps it can only be understood abstractly, without the constriction of words.
"The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as a painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."
The Oxford English Dictionary
This definition creates boundaries which may be challenged.
Can Animals not produce art?
Congo (Right),is a Chimpanzee painter whose works have sold for thousands. Congo had a solo show at the Mayor Gallery, London in 2019.
What about art that is not beautiful?
(Francis Bacon, Study after Velásquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X)
In our contemporary art climate, often the most affective works are those that are not beautiful.
Saying how you're supposed to respond to the artwork confines the experience.
"The conscious utterance of thought, by speech or action, to any end, is art"
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, 1870
Here the boundaries are suggested to be so broad that their definition echoes the same weight as Descartes' Cogito Ergo sum (I think therefore I am)......or rather (I think, therefore I am an artist).
Art is functional
To define it, we can look to extrapolate its purpose and how it functions. Just as a cheese-grater is an object that is wholly defined by a single observable function, perhaps we can similarly look to its effect to determine its rationale.
"Ideas alone can be works of art... All ideas need not be made physical... A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind."
Sol LeWitt, Sentences on Conceptual Art, 1994
"Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head."
Ed Ruscha, 'Ed Ruscha', 2003
Just as Emerson describes above, Art is engaged in cognitive matters. it is produces and inspires new thought.
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been concealed by the answers."
James Baldwin, The Creative Process, 1962
Theres is a profound understanding that can be recognised in more poetic statements, however they may also just be too vague.
"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home"
Twyla Tharp
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
Thomas Merton, No Man is an island, 1955.
"Art is the most intense mode of individualism the world has ever known."
Oscar Wilde, Public Utility, 1891
Through art we find ourselves, it is functional as a vehicle for introspection and self expression.
"Art is the most effective form of communication that exists."
John dewey, Art as Experience, 1934
"Art is the Queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all generations of the world"Leonardo Da Vinci, 1519
Art can supercede language barriers and present uniquely nuanced associative meanings.
"Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible."
Paul Klee, Creative Credo, 1920
"Art is our constant effort to create for ourselves a different order of reality than that which is given to them.'
Chinua Achebe, The Truth of Fiction, 1990
"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but rather a hammer with which to shape it."
Bertold Brecht, 1956
Art constructs new worlds. Artists have put forwards objects and experiences that are unlike anything from our natural world and these can certainly function as images that are created to shape our own world.
Art is not just an experiential vehicle for those that experience it but also for those who make it, the process can be just as interpretative as the product.
"Every artist dips his brush into his own soul and paints his own nature into his own pictures."
Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
(When looking to history, it is common to find sexist language. If you offer these to your students for consideration, I would highly recommend using language that neutralises gendered pronouns. I think art teachers are more than justified to take such artistic liberties.) Further this quote also limits the role of the artist as painter, but there does exist some thought for consideration beyond the reductive language.
Art is Mimetic
(n): imitative representation of the real world in art and literature.
"All art is but an imitation of nature."
Seneca, Moral letters to Lucilius, 65CE
Here we see the contrast to this, the famous greek philosopher constrains art too much. This may have held weight at the time of Seneca, but certainly doesn't hold up now.
The idea of art as an imitation, that dominated throughout centuries of art history, dates back to ancient Greece. Plato didn’t look too fondly on art. Regarding all art forms as instances of ‘mimesis’ or imitation, he criticised them for failing to depict the eternal ideal realities that he referred to as ‘forms’ or ‘ideas’.
Nam June Paik's Magnet TV, 1965 offers a wonderful work in which it may be difficult to observe the inspiration of nature.
"Art completes what nature cannot bring. to a finish. The Artist gives us knowledge of nature's unrealised ends."
Aristotle, Lectures, 350BCE
Aristotle offers a broader definition. Art offers something that nature alone cannot. Art works from nature and extends outward from it, but this may seem to comment more on the role of the artist rather than defining what art is.
"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding."
Marc Chagall, Lectures, 1985
However, not all art competes at ends with nature. There are even some artists who embrace gardening as an act of contemporary art-making.
Art is Long
"Ars longa, Vita brevis." (Art is long, life is short).
Hippocrates, Aphorisms, 370BCE
To make art is to leave a mark, even ephemeral artworks endure in concept. This mark is hoped to live on outside of and beyond the life of the artist, with artists describing 'immortalising' their subjects and compositions.
"Art is a way of recognising oneself, which is why it will always be modern."
Louise Bourgeois, Bourgeois, 1988
Even art that is centuries old can be made modern by the way that it is recognised and understood in the present. Art can transcend time.
"Art is the highest form of hope."
Gerhard Richter, 1982
"Art is a revolt, a protest against fate."
Andre Malraux, Man's Fate, 1933
Art is a challenge, an advocation of change cast out into the world.
"An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk, then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before."
Francis Ford Coppola, Interview in 99u, 2011
The creation of and engagement with an artwork is itself a risky exchange. To engage with a work critically is to embrace that some part of you may be challenged upon investigating it. Art is powerful and can reshape your mind.
Art is magic
"Art is a lie that makes us realise truth."
Pablo Picasso, Picasso on Art, 1972
"Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth."
Theodor Adorno, Minima Morlia, 1951
"Art allows you to imbue the truth with a sort of magic, so it can infiltrate the psyches of more people, including those who don't believe the same things as you."
Wangechi Mutu, 33 Artists in 3 Acts, 2014
Empires and governments have recognised the power of art and have used it to varying ends, but the power of art is also wielded by individuals. that's what makes it such a magic concept to engage with.
"Art is not a thing, it is a way."
Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers, 1908
"What art is, in reality, is this missing link, not the links which exist. It's not what you see that is art; art is the gap"
Marcel Duchamp, Eros c'est la vie, 1975
The magic happens in between the artist and the viewer, between the work of art and its audience.
"Art is anything you can get away with."
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964
Methodologies for applying this to the classroom.
This could be a way to access and challenge student understandings of art; to introduce the subject or to develop critical thinking in students. Alternatively, using the definitions of art can enrich any lesson, giving further relevance to a lesson and encouraging students to engage with the highest order of conceptual art making. "In today's lesson we take on the direct challenge of what it means to create artwork...".
Definitions can be printed on slips of paper and placed throughout the classroom, such that students could find a definition of art that they resonate with.
To challenge these understandings, students would be tasked with creating one artwork that fulfils the definition and one artwork that contradicts the definition. This could pose an interesting challenge, and it would be helpful to provide students with a 'cheat sheet' of useful directions to look in for each of the definitions. For example: Seneca's definition: "All art is but an imitation of nature." with may be fulfilled by creating a nature inspired still-life, but may be challenged by creating a fantastical image of a scene from science-fiction.
Each of these definitions could also set out different themes for a grander scheme of work.
E.g. Malroux's definition of Art as revolt - protest art; Bourgeois' definition of art as a way of reflecting ourselves - portraiture.
These definitions of art are also rather inspiring to read through and would make for an excellent installation in the classroom. A Brechtian hammer breaking a mirror with this quote written on the shards of glass would be an especially compelling example.
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