| Collecting
Art
Although today
the word art usually refers to the visual arts,
the concept of what art is has continuously changed
over centuries. Perhaps the most concise definition
is its broadest—art refers to all creative human
endeavors, excluding actions directly relatxcluding
actions directly related to survival and reproduction.
Art both explores human emotions
and ways to produce them - and good art brings
something new and original in either of these
two respects.
Artists, purposely or not, work
under the influence of other artists of the past
and present. Much of the development of individual
artists deals with finding structured principles
for how to express certain ideas through various
kinds of symbolism. For example, Vasily Kandinsky
famously developed his use of color in painting
through a system of stimulus response, where over
time he gained an understanding of the emotions
that can be evoked by color and combinations of
color.
Contemporary artist Andy
Goldsworthy, on the other hand, chose to use the
medium of found natural objects and materials
to arrange temporary sculptures; the only record
of these sculptures brought back to the world
comes in the form of a modest photograph.
It is frequently argued that art cannot be defined,
partly because people's standards for judging
what is or is not art are completely subjective.
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