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What is Art?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Art should be interesting and beautiful, so people will have different opinions on what art is, because they have different interests and ideas of beauty. I think art should be something inspiring and something you want to look at. Art should have a subject of some sort, although the subject doesn’t need to be accurately represented, obvious or presented in a very formal manner, for example, the spattered paint of Jackson Pollock’s work expresses movement, a record of his movement around the canvas, and Miro’s work has almost cartoon like qualities, and fairly basic lines. I don’t think that a square, painted in one colour is art, I can’t see any point in these paintings, It’s not even art for arts sake, and anyone could paint a square. Art needs to be original, something never done before, or a new take on something that has been done. Art isn’t always a painting or sculpture, in the traditional sense. Everything from furniture to make-up can be art. For example, a chair with a design influenced by Charles Rennie Macintosh, an art deco vase, or the way geisha are dressed in beautiful kimono, and have their make-up almost painted on, makes them look like living works of art.

Ars, the Latin word from which art was derived, means skill or craft. Which means anything created by man could be art. Art covers everything from acting and music to dance and martial arts, to painting and sculpture. So in summary, in my opinion, art is the result of human creativity and should have some kind of meaning, even if the meaning is meaningless.