We begin with a working definition: Art is a selective, intelligible representation of reality, including the human condition, that expresses an artist’s mental conceptual value system in physically perceptual aesthetic form.
The visual arts (painting and sculpture) portray nature, living beings, and objects interpreted through the eyes of an artist, the physical world as the artist sees it. Fiction in all its forms—short stories, novels, poetry, drama, film — portrays life in all its ups and downs with imaginary characters, settings, and situations according to a writer’s wish to dramatize what he or she thinks is worthy or worthless in life.
Music portrays sounds that express and evoke emotions a composer feels about the world and living in it. Even the decorative arts — furniture, fabrics, jewelry, etc. — express the values of their creator in aesthetic forms, e.g. graceful and flowing or awkward and bulky.
Values — the result of countless evaluations — form a philosophy in every artist’s mind as they do in all human minds consciously or not. And philosophy — an overall mental viewpoint from which to judge all things — whether defined or not is what directs actions and reactions by all human beings.
But for artists, the work they create is an invitation to contemplate what they regard as important in life, and they offer it in an aesthetic form in order to draw our attention to it because they consider it important.
Michelangelo’s “David” invites us to experience the fragile moment between thought and action taking place in a righteous and brave youth as he is about to fight a strong and threatening giant, while Edward Munch’s “The Scream” asks us to share the pain and fruitlessness of the human state of existence.
Victor Hugo’s fictional heroes remind us of the humanistic values worth living for against James Joyce’s novels that showcase the stream-of-thought senselessness of life in general.
Mozart’s concertos express the fascinating intricacies and soaring splendors of emotionally moving melodic sounds whereas Schoenberg reputes melody and offers numbers instead.
All artists, then, depict their philosophical view of life via their art. If their fundamental view of life matches our own, we find joy, affirmation, and hope in their work. If their view is different from or antagonistic to ours, we pass it by or experience offense when presented with it.
If we are observant, we can learn a lot about an artist’s philosophy of life from their work, and if we are smart, we can learn a lot about our own by analyzing our personal reactions to their art.
But what about non-art presented as art? Ever since 1917 when Duchamp’s “Fountain” (a urinal) was submitted for a New York City art exhibit and caused such a ruckus, we have witnessed a growing plethora of objects — a real “found” object like the urinal or a cobbled together “whatever” — offered in art exhibits, galleries, and museums that even though faultily parading as art still express the philosophy of their creators.
A urinal in a bathroom is a place to urinate, or in slang terms a place to “p***.” So, if presented as art, which is an aesthetic physical depiction of a mental philosophy, that is a serious joke declaring that life itself is just one big “p*** pot.” Or, perhaps it means that art is to be p***ed on.
But any way one interprets it specifically, it certainly reveals a deeply negative philosophy of life held by Monsieur Duchamp.
If today, we see a swag of curtains or, let’s say, a wood door scarred with slashes of paint in a museum, those “artists” are (or might be because their presentations are not intelligible so one can only guess) philosophically viewing life as opaque like the curtain or full of danger and pain like the slashes.
Plus, no objects such as what today are called “installations” (a pile of bricks or a pile of … foul-smelling worse) can meet the definition of “art.”
So if all of that sort is a joke on us like Duchamp’s, then those (con) artists are saying that we all are stupid if we take their “art” seriously, which means those individuals think life itself is just one big game, so why bother to try and make sense of it.
And if the so-called “art” flies in the face of intelligibility and we do try to make sense of it, then what does that tell us about ourselves and our own worldview, our own philosophical value system regarding life and living?
Art may be fun — a comic book is an art form — but it is never funny in philosophical terms. Philosophy is always serious in that it defines our values, our character, our choices, and our actions.
Thus, art in all its glory or grotesqueness is seriously philosophical … even when it isn’t art.
Alexandra York is an author and founding president of the American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) a New-York-City-based nonprofit educational arts and culture foundation. She has written for many publications, including “Reader’s Digest” and The New York Times. She is the author of “Crosspoints A Novel of Choice.” Her most recent book is “Soul Celebrations and Spiritual Snacks.” For more on Alexandra York — Go Here Now.
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