Personal art appreciation

Use this forum to have philosophical discussions about aesthetics and art. What is art? What is beauty? What makes art good? You can also use this forum to discuss philosophy in the arts, namely to discuss the philosophical points in any particular movie, TV show, book or story.
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Lark_Truth
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Personal art appreciation

Post by Lark_Truth »

What I am asking here is what you guys believe makes art worthwhile. What do you think makes art good? Is it the shading techniques, the pattern or free-form, color, realistic-looking objects, etc.?

We all see the world differently, especially the artists themselves. People appreciate art in different ways and I would like to hear your opinions.
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Eduk
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Eduk »

Do you mean Art as in paintings, sculptures, photographs, things like that. Or are you including books/films/music and other things which might be considered art?
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A Poster He or I
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by A Poster He or I »

My opinion about what makes a piece of art good has come around 180 degrees from what I believed when I was young. Back then I believed one could specify objective criteria for assigning a value of good or bad to a given artwork. Today, I believe the appreciation of art is 100% subjective. I even believe that the attempt to define "objective" criteria for the appreciation of art is to completely misunderstand what art is.
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Lark_Truth
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Lark_Truth »

Eduk wrote:Do you mean Art as in paintings, sculptures, photographs, things like that. Or are you including books/films/music and other things which might be considered art?
Paintings, photographs, and sculptures, Eduk.
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Supine
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Supine »

Pattern and the use of color are important parts of visual art. The focal point the eyes are drawn to in a piece is another element not to be dismissed.

Considering that... I will make the statement that good art should not require a person to have a Ph.D. as an observer to appreciate it, and that good art tends to be appreciated for centuries by even people that never went further than grade school in formal education. But that statement does not explain what makes art worthwhile.

Due to my influence from Catholicism throughout my early life and portions of my young adulthood, Catholicism having a long history of using visual arts, I will say that what makes art worthwhile if I am addressing that question, is its capability to rouse something (emotionally, psychologically) in the onlooker. For the instincts imparted in Catholicism what should be roused inside the person are things that move or even elevate the "higher" things in or about us as humans.

But I will say that if art is used specifically for propaganda (Nazi art etc.) and it is successful in doing what the artist intended it to do, then on a certain level this can be considered good art and worthwhile (for its intended purpose).

The same I will say goes for the printing and packaging on products being sold.
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by 3uGH7D4MLj »

Lark_Truth wrote:We all see the world differently, especially the artists themselves. People appreciate art in different ways and I would like to hear your opinions.
For me it's about a kind of joy that comes from looking at a mark made by a human. You get a feeling.

Like John Dewey says, Have the experience! I was in San Francisco and saw the Bruce Connor/William Kentridge exhibits at the SFMOMA. I will never forget the day!
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by -1- »

3uGH7D4MLj wrote: Like John Dewey says, Have the experience! I was in San Francisco and saw the Bruce Connor/William Kentridge exhibits at the SFMOMA. I will never forget the day!
Visual art does not move me much. But I used to know this babe, she was totally drop-dead gorgeous, and she said that the moment she beheld a One Gogh painting at the STFUYOMOFO exhibition in Toronto at the AGO or at the ROM, she burst into tears.

The one series of paintings that grabbed me ever, were the illustrations to the music of Emerson Lake and Palmer's take on Musigorsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" which were shown on the inside fold of a double-fold record cover. Those were cool. "The Hut of Baba Yaga", "The Curse of Baba Yaga", "The Sage", "The Gnome", etc. They instilled in me a feeling of infinity, a feeling of I don't know what. But instill they did.

Of course the music helped.

I went through all the motions of the psychedelic experience without taking any drugs, just listening to the music. Such is the power that music holds over me. Little surprise, if you believe Beethoven when he said, "Music is the language in which another world talks to us, which understands us, but which we will never comprehend."

Other than that, I get my visual artistic satisfaction from looking at maps, at antique maps, esp. Spruner's Historische Landkarte which he etched in the middle of the 1800s for Justus Perthes in Gotha.
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Razblo »

Lark_Truth wrote:What I am asking here is what you guys believe makes art worthwhile. What do you think makes art good? Is it the shading techniques, the pattern or free-form, color, realistic-looking objects, etc.?

We all see the world differently, especially the artists themselves. People appreciate art in different ways and I would like to hear your opinions.
It has to maintain my interest. If I see a work that I would wish to own it would mean that I could never get tired of noticing it. My favorite works are those that tell me a story which the artist may have not necessarily intended. Others types of favorites just have a certain pleasurable balance to them. Maybe they organize the chaos of life into some semblance of order, thereby having a calming delight about them. I presume this is why many artists use the golden ratio in their work's underlying structure. A good artist seems to be a trickster of worth.
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LuckyR
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by LuckyR »

I have always maintained that the value of the art lies in the accumulated experiences of the viewer. If they are similar to that of the artist, the audience will "get it" and experience the "classic" interpretation. OTOH, if the viewer has a very different life experience than the artist they may either "not get it" and dismiss the piece, or have a different or unique interpretation that can even magnify the stature of the piece beyond that in the standard audience.
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by -1- »

LuckyR wrote:I have always maintained that the value of the art lies in the accumulated experiences of the viewer. If they are similar to that of the artist, the audience will "get it" and experience the "classic" interpretation. OTOH, if the viewer has a very different life experience than the artist they may either "not get it" and dismiss the piece, or have a different or unique interpretation that can even magnify the stature of the piece beyond that in the standard audience.
This makes sense... very much.

I can't place myself on this conceptual map, though. I must have had similar experiences to SOME artists'. Not to all of them. But to some. I have quite a number of decades' worth of accumulation. So how come I can enjoy no art? I enjoy music, books, plays, movies, but not art. What's wrong with me? Can you explain? (No pressure, just curious... of course I can't expect you to fully explain this to me.)
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Eduk
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Eduk »

-1- I'm more or less the same. I can appreciate a fine work of art. I can choose between lesser and greater works of art. But art does very little for me. A fine landscape hanging on the wall in my house will get barely a glance. I will appreciate it more than not having a fine landscape. But not greatly so. I think on the whole I'd prefer a nice wood floor in my house than a Cezanne on the wall, ignoring price.
Whereas art within the context of a movie telling a story is a very different thing. The art of tarcovsky is something I genuinely like.
Poetry also does little for me. Whereas movies, music, literature and video games are all things I greatly appreciate.
Some people love poetry. Some people love fine art. I've never really felt there was anything wrong with me. But I try to keep an open mind, maybe there is.

-- Updated July 31st, 2017, 6:08 am to add the following --

Put it this way perhaps. I enjoy kicking a sphere around amongst a group of people into a net with other people trying to stop me. It's basically pointless. But I love to do it, even though I am relatively quite bad at it. On the other hand not everyone does enjoy football. But I never really thought there was anything wrong with not enjoying football.
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Burning ghost
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Burning ghost »

Tastes change. The issue is more about what you deem art's purpose to be in general?

If yoy are talking about mere beauty then there are quite objective measures that can be applied to paintings regarding general symmetry. In this respect what is interesting is that symmetry is generally considered to be beautiful, but slight asymmetry MORE beautiful.

A lot other than this is down to exposure and life experience. Plus, technical critique is often different to general appreciation. I can for example point out how technically well done something is. That does not mean I am going to like it though!

Also, cultural norms play a huge part in this (that would really come under "exposure" and "experience" in my book though.)
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LuckyR
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by LuckyR »

-1- wrote:
LuckyR wrote:I have always maintained that the value of the art lies in the accumulated experiences of the viewer. If they are similar to that of the artist, the audience will "get it" and experience the "classic" interpretation. OTOH, if the viewer has a very different life experience than the artist they may either "not get it" and dismiss the piece, or have a different or unique interpretation that can even magnify the stature of the piece beyond that in the standard audience.
This makes sense... very much.

I can't place myself on this conceptual map, though. I must have had similar experiences to SOME artists'. Not to all of them. But to some. I have quite a number of decades' worth of accumulation. So how come I can enjoy no art? I enjoy music, books, plays, movies, but not art. What's wrong with me? Can you explain? (No pressure, just curious... of course I can't expect you to fully explain this to me.)
Have you ever dropped acid? But seriously, I agree that having a little bit of the navel gazing gene helps with visual art appreciation. Meditation or yoga similar in that you get a lot more out of them if you can focus your mind on the desired subject.
"As usual... it depends."
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by -1- »

LuckyR wrote:
Have you ever dropped acid?
Not too many times. After my employer had to call in the EPA to clean up the mess after I dropped the acid, he fired me to save money, and hired someone else with a less pronounced Parkinson's.

Seriously speaking, no, never. "Reality is for people who can't handle drugs." I feared I'd freak out on LSD.

-- Updated 2017 August 3rd, 2:36 am to add the following --
Eduk wrote: Put it this way perhaps. I enjoy kicking a sphere around amongst a group of people into a net with other people trying to stop me. It's basically pointless. But I love to do it, even though I am relatively quite bad at it. On the other hand not everyone does enjoy football. But I never really thought there was anything wrong with not enjoying football.
Nobody can fathom the attraction inherent in kicking the object "ball". It is a mystery.

Soccer / European football is the only natural sport "l'art pour l'art". It involves kicking a ball for no known reason. All other sports sprouted from some useful and practical technicality.

(I expect -0+ to chime in and name ten other sports that have no or only little practicality in their development.)
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Albert Tatlock
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Re: Personal art appreciation

Post by Albert Tatlock »

-1- wrote: (I expect -0+ to chime in and name ten other sports that have no or only little practicality in their development.)
Snooker (billiards, pool)? I can see how football could have come about inadvertently by someone casually kicking an object on the ground while walking along and then realising its potential for entertainment. On the other hand, it seems to me that you would have to go well out of your way to find the inspiration necessary to come up with snooker.
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