Jason Burrell Definitions of Art

It is amazing how many answers there are to the question "What is Art?" The following definitions of Art have been compiled from a wide variety of sources over the past few years. They are arranged from the broadest to the more specific.

"Art consists of reshaping life but it does not create life, nor cause life."         --Stanley Kubrick

1. everything. (an unpopular yet challenging notion)

2. everything humanity makes.

3. something necessary for human life (after air, water, food and shelter from the elements). Aristotle

4. anything humanity makes that does not come from our two biological urges; survival and reproduction. Scott McCloud

5. anything an artist makes. (we have this definition thanks to auction houses and a voracious art market)

6. what society declares Art.

7. anything an artist declares Art. (thank you Marcel)

8. communication.

9. the experience of sending meaning through action to another human being.

10. an object which is made/found to contain the expression of an artist and is capable of transfering it to a viewer.

11. the experience of receiving meaning through/from the actions of another human being.

(try this happy little diagram)

12. an expression.

13. beauty.

14. an aesthetic exchange.

15. truthful to the human condition.

16. the lie that tells the truth. Picasso

17. a designation of the special.

18. quality, craftmanship.

19. making well what needs making. Rebecca Connors

20. perpetual immoral subversion of the existing order. Marquis de Sade

21. mimesis (humanity copying nature, the quality of the likeness to physical reality).

22. clever, knack, power, trick, scheme, majic, deviousness.

Remember begin any discussions on Art or Artwork with the question "Which definition of Art are you using?"

Please e-mail your favorite definition of Art.