Chantal Bradley
What is Art?
Reading 1
“Having an eye in criticism is as important as having an ear in music”, says Jerry Saltz, and he is absolutely correct as music is a type of art. Saltz speaks of criticizing artwork and what he defines as artwork, which in several ways explains how others see art and its criticism. Art may be defined in many different ways but it still has the same goal, which is to express the feelings or emotion that the artist is trying to project.
Saltz explains that being critical to artwork is a way of paying homage in a sense. It shows that you paid enough attention to notice the details and express them. The same as when listening to music, in order to realize that a wrong chord was played at the wrong time one would have to be paying close attention to the music in which they are listening. As in criticizing artwork, one has to study the painting/ drawing in order to notice the concept of the piece as well as what could have been changed about the piece.
One may think of art as a job, while others like myself think of it as a way of expressing certain feelings or thoughts that you may not be able to describe in words. I happen to believe that artists are some of the most talented, unique, bold, courageous people in the world; and criticizing their work is a major honor. The reason I say its an honor to criticize artists work is because they are the ones that actually have the courage to publish these strong emotions and images that we all feel and see daily but just don’t have enough audacity to go through with it ourselves. Some people are actually afraid of criticizing certain pieces with fear of exiting their comfort zone. Yet without criticism how will an artist improve?
The way Saltz describes art is pretty much how I see it. It is simply a “way of thinking”. Art is about expressing yourself with freedom of knowing that you can express these thoughts and feelings without worry of embarrassment. Art is original. There are several different ways to describe art. Art is bold, cultural, abstract even. Without art the world would be so much less than dull, bland, average. Art allows difference in the world, and allows life to sprout from just an idea. Giving opinions on artwork only betters the artist. It allows the artist to see what he/she could’ve done to change the piece to make it better or just allow the artist to see your point of view, which always helps artists in new ideas as far as what to publish next.
Very seldom do you find a piece of art that describes ones whole emotion , sometimes you may find two or three different emotions in one image; and thats where critics come in at. Critics can set apart different ideas going on in an image. He who is brave enough to critique an artists’ work truthfully and honestly without fear deserves much respect. These are the critics that we need more of nowadays. Below is what I define as art, pure emotion felt in this picture, yet colorful and graphic.
by Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman, 1937
