art-definitions
A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.
—Leonard Bernstein
In music, and almost in music alone, it is possible for the artist to appeal to his audience directly, without the intervention of a medium of communication in common use for other purposes. The architect must express himself in buildings which have some utilitarian purpose. The poet must use words which are bandied about in the daily give-and-take
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What could painting do that a camera could not? Different answers to this question gave rise to various modern art movements. The Impressionists rejected detailed studies in favor of quick snapshots that captured the essence of their subjects. Cubism focused on form, Futurism on movement, and Surrealism on states of consciousness.
Tim Brinkhof • Attention Required! | Cloudflare
—Tim Brinkhof, What’s the Difference Between Modern and Contemporary Art? (2025)
As the novelist Ottessa Moshfegh once said to Bookforum , “A novel is a literary work of art meant to expand consciousness.”
Celine Nguyen • no one told me about proust - by Celine Nguyen
Most elites believed that “art” described a rarified sphere...which stood in opposition to the "mass culture" of bland, sensationalist, lowest-common-denominator works made for profit. There was no confusing the two worlds, because there was a very high bar for what qualified as “art.” The avant-garde concept of art was something like “creative alt... See more
Celine Nguyen • no one told me about proust - by Celine Nguyen
Red-chip art comes in many guises, but certain visual patterns predominate: super-flat cartoons, a street art/graffiti aesthetic, and multi-colored chrome. A crypto component is always welcome.
Red-chip collectors include mysteriously affluent millennials who like artworks that look like toys, newly wealthy techies that the traditional art world has
... See moreDuchamp may not be on the lips of many artists, over a century after his revolutionary moves in the art world, but he is in their subconscious. Whenever an artist makes a gesture and calls it art, or refuses traditional material, or proclaims that their ritual, their event, their gathering, or whatever they do as an artist, is art, they are quoting... See more
Thomas Girst • Attention Required! | Cloudflare
—Thomas Girst, Does Marcel Duchamp Still Matter? (2025)
Brief rewind to April 1917. Marcel Duchamp (or was it? Art history cannot agree. It is entirely likely that Duchamp stole this idea from Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, an artist working with found objects at the time) took a photo of one of his new artwork: Fountain — a porcelain urinal signed R. Mutt . It was published in a Dada journal called The ... See more
ZM • NO MORE FOUND OBJECTS
—Zarina Muhammad, No More Found Objects (2025)