h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a good piece! I wonder which will draw the most comment - your opinions on what art is, or those on what it is not. I'm betting on the latter. For myself, art is about transcending limitations, so that any definition of what art is not becomes problematic. Of course, there are individual limits, but sweeping statements often run afoul. This is why so many artistic movements are vaguely defined. The Conceptualists disagreed on what Conceptualism is; so, in their day, the Impressionists were of varied opinions as to their art.
I once tried to boil down a definition of art. The closest I came was "Art is that which delights the eye and excites the mind." Someone might argue that accidental events (a beautiful sunset, say) is not art because there is no artist creating it, but that argument turns quickly into theology.
One thing that makes contemporary art so hard for the casual observer is that art no longer depends on common contexts; no longer just illustrations of stories or ideas that everyone knows, art can represent very individual ideas. With lesser-known artists, it can be very difficult to find any source that can help explain these ideas. The move from common to personal contexts is, I think, the greatest change in art in recorded history.
Peace,
Stephen Persing

Thanks steve,

You are the first person to comment in this forum. I used to have an interactive website uploaded but then my ISP stuffed up my account and I still haven't been able to re-upload it. Maybe I will get around to that soon. It was hot linked with various crosslinks and explanations of meaning/context etc of individual words and phrases.

I often find myself defining art along the lines of "...in the eye of the beholder" though I take that to include the artist. It also covers art that is purely conceptual (ie never seen as such only understood at a thought/concept/idea level) such as that created by the FLUXUS group of artists.

Q'pop

Conceptualism does give people pause, especially in regard to works that exists only briefly, and afterward survive in documentation only. Having to explain that the photos on the gallery wall show what an artwork was, and are not the work itself, can be confusing.
I live in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, and am lucky enough to be near the Wadsworth Atheneum, the country's oldest public art museum. I wrote an entry on it but have forgotten it's number - oh, well. Anyway, the Atheneum has a special relationship with Sol LeWitt, one of the most prominent Conceptualists, and gets frequent loans from his private collection. This has helped me get some understanding of the movement, but also has taught me how much more there is to know. "The eye of the beholder" is a good place to start; the eyes are so near the brain. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Peace,
Stephen