When I was eight years old I asked my step mother (who is an artist) “why is that art?” She very cleverly responded by saying, “well they made it, and called it art.”
Though this may seem like a small or insignificant experience in my life, I see now that it has shaped my perception of “art.” Having no personal criteria to swallow art, I have always felt a little removed or confused by the art world. This class is really the first time I have looked into theory or criteria to define something I thought was self-containing. It is art because they said it was… right? After reading this book, as well as the chapters on formalism and postmodernism, I believe that my step-mom’s definition better fits with the final who theories, rather than an all inclusive definition.
According to Terry Barrett, formalism is essentially art for the sake of art, only concerned with form and material, rather than narrative. Postmodernism is also free form that allows self-expression. Formalism and postmodernism have no “capital T, Truth” (Gwennap, 2011). The scholar behind this definition was alluding to no formal confounds to restrain these art forms. Basically, my step-mother’s definition works well with Barrett’s and Gwennap’s definition of formalism and postmodernism, not art as a whole.
Barrett writes, “Formalist art often manages to alienate many people form new art, leaving them feeling ignorant and incapable of understanding it or, worse, feeling ‘put on’ or taken advantage of by the art world.” I guess this is why her book was published… she gets me. Well, not just me, but all of us creatively inspired yet detached individuals. I have always struggled to create what I want, while not fully understanding what is art.
So now, after I have digested this book, how will I define art? I love the free form of both formalism and postmodernism, but as I have learned from history, I don’t do well without definitions. I will never completely let go of the idea that if I call it art, it is art. Hopefully Barrett has left me with a better understanding of what makes good art.