-1- wrote:Art is a language.
"You call that art???" The artist speaks a different language, that's all.
Artists speak different languages.
"You call that art???" This usually said by people who know little about art and should really be saying, "That is bad art," or "I don't like that." These are examples of a common usage where people treat "art" as a signifier of approval for artifacts that meet their, usually very narrow, standards. There are also conflicts at definitional boundaries. One person will accept only drawing, painting and sculpture within their meaning of art, while the next will also accept performance and installation, but not looped film, and so on. I find Tracey Emmin very overrated and she derides anyone who still paints, as being stuck in the past. It's all a bit like saying, "I speak English, which is a proper language, not like those unacceptable Spanish or Arabs; these aren't really languages at all." When you see it from that angle it comes into perspective. There is always a temptation to put qualitative criteria into a definition of art, but if you do, the definition will fall apart because it becomes just a matter of personal taste and opinion, and not a matter of fact. When each person has their own definition the word becomes empty.