What's Art?

David Santos Martinez

Definitely, this is not an easy question. Trying to find a definition that matches with all the kinds of art, if possible, would be a very long process, and the final result would be anything but brief.

First of all I have to say that art is extremely personal in two aspects. On one hand we have the public’s point of view. We can see that what art is for one person can be considered a waste of time by another. This fact does not mean that one of them is tasteless. It is just that they are different individuals; because, if there is something that characterizes art, it is individuality. Hence the huge amount of styles and varieties. And it is here where we find the other side of art: the artist’s perspective.

Despite the fact that almost every piece of art on Earth can be forged, there is something that even the best falsifier will never be able to do: to imitate the artist’s intentions. Although the copy and the original will look the same when compared to each other, one of them will have something that can’t be detected in any way, and therefore they can be considered as equals, but it is exactly this lack what distinguishes art (a mere material object) from Art (an object full of intention): the purpose.

I’m totally sure that if we can find a point in common between all the works of Art in the world it will be, besides individuality, an intention. Sometimes it will be very simple and noticeable while others it will be incredibly complex and almost impossible to understand. And this is why Art is unique, because it turns the artist on a kind of god who decides what does something means and what it does not. The true artist adapts his reality to his point of view. For this reason, every single piece of Art has, as we were saying, a personal message. It can vary from a feeling such as happiness, sorrow, or tenderness to a whole criticism to the politic/social system of a certain epoch, but what must be clear is that Art is a way of expressing ideas.

Nevertheless, this is my opinion and thus it is completely subjective. But, the only thing that I expect is that the next time you find yourself staring bewilderingly to one of those strange modern pieces of art after having tried in a hundred of ways to understand what it means, instead of getting angry and thinking that it is nonsense, just consider that maybe the intention of the artist was to make you feel disconcerted.

Finally, after having visited a couple of museums and having contrasted experiences, you could describe Art with a huge range of adjectives: beautiful, ridiculous, creative, stupid, simple…

But mind your vocabulary: Art can be a lot of things, but it will never be meaningless.