by Chanell Gautreaux

Created on: June 20, 2010

Whether or not something is a work of art is, as the saying goes, clearly in the eye of the beholder.  It is a very subjective thing and art as a concept means one thing to one person something completely different to another.  There are many different types of art from highly sophisticated to naïve and all are valid forms of creative expression.

Art makers, whether they be children, crafters or fine art master painters, have their way of looking at what is or is not art while the average layperson who merely looks at, admires, envies, or ultimately purchases art has another.  Museums as institutions create a perception of what is accepted as art based the items they exhibit and house in their permanent collections.

In order to judge what is or is not a work of art one would need a set of qualifications that would then have to be agreed upon by societies at large from all over the world.  Perhaps the real question should be “How to tell the value of a work of art.”  Even then there would be discussions of aesthetic value versus monetary value that would no doubt drag on indefinitely without a true consensus.

The fact of the matter is that it will always true that to at least one someone somewhere, almost anything that would be held up for judgment will be seen as a work of art.  Whether or not someone else will appreciate it as such will another matter entirely.

Artistry is in itself the bringing forth of something of beauty or other intrinsic value from ordinary materials and transforming them into greater than what they were.  It is artistic vision that allows this to happen and therefore anything that comes into being through a creative process has to be considered some form of art regardless of its level of sophistication.

A viewer’s engagement in a work of art is not solely based on how attractive it is or what materials have been used or the creating artist’s level of mastery or even the perceived monetary value of the object.  Fine art, folk art, naïve art, primitive art – regardless of crudeness, complexity or how you choose to qualify it, it’s all art.

Passion, devotion, the use of line, color and/or light; bringing forth something from within such as sculpture from stone or an assemblage that takes items that mean little on their own but collectively say something of significance, are all elements of what makes something a valued work of art.

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