Saturday, September 08, 2007

Truth through Art

How can one express truth through art? (Art in the sense of visual works such as paintings, sculptures, or drawings)

1. Who decides what makes art good or bad? Can art be good even if its technically poor but has a strong emotion, feeling or message attached?
2. Is art a personal experience where the viewer gets to decide what it means through their own rationalizations or is it determined through authority, and societal consensus?

5 comments:

Elliot Ross said...

These are age old questions and are very subjective. There isn't a right or wrong answer by any means and it just depends on the point of view.

Personally, I am a photographer and for me it can be a great release in terms of stress and emotions (good and bad). Many of my works have a message, but it is interesting how people interpret the meaning differently.

As for your second question, art is most definetly a personal experience. It is NOT a consensus. The purpose of art is to connect on a personal level with its audience meaning each individual and not the group as a whole. Everyone can draw their own conclusions and that is the beauty of art.

Kenshin_Himura said...

I believe that art can be anything, and can be interpreted by anyone.
For example, just this morning, I saw a spider web in my bushes. I saw it as a masterpiece, while some people may percieve it as a nuisance.

ethan_is_ninja said...

I believe that truth cannot be put into art. Art is defined by dictionary.com as "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance". It does not say that art is truth, even though truth can be beautiful, appealing and of more than ordinary significance. But there is no one that can determine that art is good or bad except for themselves. For example, a piece of white paper can be as much art to one person as the Mona Lisa can be to another.

susanna.w said...

Truth through art. What truth can be easily conveyed through art? Give me a universal truth and I don't think I could find a way to draw it. I might be able to write a paper or a story on it, but visual art can express a strong emotion, a theory, or something that is personal to me.

katrina337 said...

I think you could express universal truth through art, if you did it very abstractly. I do believe, like what Elliot said, it depends on your perception. I think much can be expressed through art, while someone else can say that art is a pointless waste of time.