I got the whiteboard duster thrown at me by my art teacher last lesson because i said a-little-too-loudly, "How the hell can a canvas painted red with a single grungy, grey stripe along it, be called art?!?"

That painting is worth more then 2 million i'll have you know. But it got me thinking.

So what exactly is... art?

"a particular type of creative production generated by human beings, and the term usually implies some degree of aesthetic value."

Okay... But that just scratches the surface, dont you agree?

'Art' is such a broad term, and it lacks a proper definition. To be honest, I used to believe art was just those huge, expensive, classy, Renaissance-type-ish paintings, you see in places like the louvre', But today i could call any of these:



'Art', why?

Somtimes we ourselves question what art is. Its funny, really, because nowadays an artist could stick a blue pen on a fancy stool, cover it in a protective glass case, show it in an art museuem, clap his hands together, and proudly call it, 'Art'; And still, viewers would sorround the glass case in awe, trying to figure out EXACTLY why this blue pen is so fantastic. You would. Dont lie.

Lets do a little history check. Lets start with Impressionism period. (Cause most of you should know Monet right?!?) it was a very restricted art movement. They would not accept one of these:



as art. Impressionists were mainly all about outdoors, crowded cafe's etc. Impresionist art was 'revolutionary' (thats right, people thought paintings of a cafe where revolutionary) for the period because artists were able to paint en plein air' (outside), extending subject matter. Because of industrialisation, artists no longer had to paint accurate, fine detailed self portraits. That was now the cameras duty.

Impressionists and people of that period would call art... something along the lines of, 'aesthetically pleasing, pretty, ordinary subject-matter' so on and so forth.

This contrasts, artists like, say... the expressionists, who saw art as the projection of inner feelings. There artworks were spontaneous, highly emotive and arbitrary.

Ofcourse thats way back then, (like the 1800's, but art goes way further back...)

Where am i going with this? Well, Each art movement, Renaissance, Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Dada etc etc. was heavily influenced by the previous, mainly because they wanted to deviate, and rebel from artistic restrictions.

So 21st century art. Where are we at? Well thanks to people like Marcel Duchamp (Dada) and Robert Rauschenberg (Pop Art), art no longer has to be 'aestherically pleasing' or whatever the impressionists started. Infact, art doesnt really have to be anything at all. By drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa, and reworking already-made objects, artistic boundries have been pushed so far there practically is no limit. If Monet knew this, he'd be turning in his grave.

So, the truth is, Art doesnt really have a definition. Well it does, according to wikipedia and my dictionary... But I think we, ourselves need to come up with a definition, from our OWN point of view; art has no limits of course. To me, you cant define art by what it is, but how it is done. Its form and content, its elements and principles. Art is infinite, i could call my make-up, 'art' for instace.

The only thing relating to art which is probably the same for us all, is that its different for us all.

Now for some more featured artwork, which i believe shows just how far 'artistic boundry' of the 21st century is





Now you tell me. What is art?

(Thankyou ^_^ I hope it was... thought provoking? at the least... Oh and my teacher just dropped the whiteboard duster rather drammatically, no harm done here...)