What Is Art?

A PILE OF DIRTY DISHES IS NOT ART. DISCUSS

If a pile of dirty dishes is not art, then what is it? Who says it is or it isn’t? then what is art?

Some say “art is not a thing, ist a way” or others say its just “a form of consciousness” but the million question is, how can you define it? WHERE IS THE LINE DRAWN?

for my point of view, the key word is context. By saying context I mean to the era, place, year, ideals, physical space, time. What defines something as art, is its context, its intention, its process, all the thinking that is behind.

Is not the same putting a pile of dirty dishes in a kitchen than in a museum.

to reinforce my statement, I will talk a little deeper about marcel duchamp, a great reference for art Dadaism which I will explain later.

Marcel the year 1917 placed a simple urinal in a museum and said "this is art". This installation created a lot of controversy in the time. It seems simple, but getting to that thought ,is not. Apart from taking the urinal out of its context , he got out of his own context, of the collective thinking of the 20s, out of the schemes , he created something totally new, innovative and crazy. An art that breaks boundaries.

This example goes beyond of the concept of"context", Marcel, as I mentioned before, was part of an art movement called Dadaism, this is developed between 1926 and 1934, and its originated in oniric dramatic circumstances, the outbreak of the First World War.

this situation has on the artists a sense of rejection and rebellion against the rules, contempt. They constantly ask themselves, who decides what is art, why is that considered beautiful and that not, who says so? This are Crucial questions in the development of contemporary art. Dada brought to the world a reflection and art that will not be the same after them, they lead the reflection to ridicule, satire, randomness.

this is linked directly to the discuss of is a pile of dirty dishes art. as Dadaism modifies the passive relationship between the viewer and the work. their idea of art is making art something useful, elevate the dignity of art to simple everyday objects, famous ready-made (manufactured objects), as proof that art was, above all, a mental attitude that resided in the viewer and, by representing these objects in a showroom, aesthetic qualities will be appreciated and not its utilitarian that were normally suggested , and turn everyday objects into works of art, completely decontextualized objects that do not serve their function, but elevated to the category of art, what an irony of the pathetic.

By removing an object from the context that it is usual and performing its practical function, its taken and located in a dimension where there is nothing that can be utilitarian, and all can be aesthetic. What determines the aesthetic value

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