Saturday, December 17, 2011

It's Pretty, But Is It Art? No, Probably Not

So a friend and I were walking around a gallery a little while ago, looking at the art on the walls and judging whether or not it actually was art.  I don't have a great art education (that may or may not be an advantage) but I did learn the basic rules of composition: rule of thirds, using directors, creating tension with diagonals... And I was attempting to explain why some things worked, and some didn't.  My friend could have cared less about the rules; he only knew what he did and didn't like.

I was looking at my oldest son's blog earlier today (he is a photographer too, and a really good one) where I saw he had posted the following quote:

"Whether visual art is good or bad is in the eye of the beholder and a matter of opinion. Whether or not an effort is art at all is defined by indisputable laws of composition."

http://realfloridaphoto.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/50000-worth-of-arts-training-in-convenient-blog-form/

A nice summation, I think.  If you disagree, have at it.