defining good art
“The process of making art,” writes Rebecca Solnit, “is the process of becoming a person with agency, with independent thought, a producer of meaning rather than a consumer of meanings that may be at odds with your soul, your destiny, your humanity.”[2]
Cameron Russell • How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone: A Memoir
My working definition of art is thus derived in part from both a moderate institutional theory that recognizes the important role that the museum space plays in determining meaning and mediating a history, tradition, and theory of what occurs in that space, and an ecological theory of art that affirms that in its making and viewing, art does someth
... See moreDaniel A. Siedell • God in the Gallery (Cultural Exegesis): A Christian Embrace of Modern Art
By this definition, art is less an object and more a process of exploration.
Amy Whitaker • Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses
- “Art exposes us to the universal experience of being a meaning-making animal in a universe where meanings falter. A good definition of art, it seems to me, might be the science of making meaning-making tools.”
Garth Greenwell • Just a moment...
The artist is distinguished from all other responsible actors in society — the politicians, legislators, educators, and scientists — by the fact that he is his own test tube, his own laboratory, working according to very rigorous rules, however unstated these may be, and cannot allow any consideration to supersede his responsibility to reveal all t
... See moreMaria Popova • James Baldwin on the Creative Process and the Artist’s Responsibility to Society
“At the same time, art cannot be understood in terms of purpose. As the sculptor Charles Ray has said, art is “for absolutely nothing.” To make, or experience, art is to enter a kind of free zone; it slows us down, places us in some epistemological estuary, takes us into the wild. We make art from our flaws, fragilities, perversities, from our need
... See moreThe best art makes your head spin with questions. Perhaps this is the fundamental distinction between pure art and pure design. While great art makes you wonder, great design makes things clear.
John Maeda • The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)
we do not think of them (artworks) as experiences we have to have by going to certain places, but that we may have at any time of day in connection with…objects, scenes, persons that are not in any way labeled to be works of fine art. - John Dewey