What is Art?

Last week in class (1/28 – 2/1) we discussed various pieces of art in order to get a better understanding of what exactly is art. At first I thought it would be simple to place a definition on the term of art. However, at the end of the week I had discovered that art really has no exact definition and that art is something that will continuously evolve with time. For example, we discussed pieces of art from artists such as Jackson Pollock, Damien Hirst, and Andy Warhol.

Jackson Pollock has always been an artist who has stood out in the contemporary era. People often claim that his works of art look so easy that anyone could create them. What the average person may not understand is the amount of complexity and layering involved in developing a masterpiece such as “Lavender Mist”. Pollock would lay the canvas’ down on the floor where he would pour his paint and emotions onto the canvas giving his paintings an ecstatic life of their own. When you look at a Pollock your eyes tend to drift across the whole canvas, focusing on the unbelievable depth and breadth of the two dimensional canvas.

When Damien Hirst’s art work involving a shark who had undergone taxidermy was brought up in class it seemed like a relatively odd concept. Especially when the report said that it was the second shark used to insure the life of the artworks message. I was left very confused about how this was considered art at all. Personally, I felt as though it should be in the Museum of Natural History instead of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After the report I just accepted it as a form of art that I do not understand and left it as water under the bridge. Then, Hirst’s piece titled “For the Love of God” was shown. I was shocked to say the least. It is an innovative idea, but an extremely costly one. All costs aside Hirst made me continue to wonder; what is art? And who are artists? It’s amazing to me that he was able to gather an array of individuals in order to make an idea such as these come to life. He must have been a very inspiring person to get people to follow through with his outlandish ideas.

Since we have spoken about Andy Warhol already I will not go into too much about the artist. I would just like to know if Warhol received any money from companies such as Campbell’s or Brillo after he created his art work and how much their sales increased as a result of these iconic pieces of art.