Beauty Doesn't Make Art, Art

Well after taking me a day and a half to remember my gmail email and password, I finally have logged into blogger the night before class! Now its on auto remember so that won't happen again!!!!

So I'm looking at my notes from last class and I remember us discussing the debate over what is art and what is not. I was researching on Google and came across this video named What is Art, and What is Not?



This man, Milton Glaser talks about how he distinguishes art. He says that art is something that has helped culture survive, and he also talks about beauty and art.

         "I also believe, curiously, that beauty, which is very often something we confuse with art, is merely a mechanism to move us towards attentiveness. You realize we all have a genetic capacity and need to experience beauty, but beauty is not the ultimate justification for art. It is merely the device by which we are led to attentiveness."- Milton Glaser

He goes on to say that he's decided that he distinguishes art and not art by if it grabs your attention it's art, if it doesn't, it's something else.

I agree with Milton Glaser on his conclusion of what art is because it is not all about beauty, art is something that will grab your attention.

An example of something that grabs my attention is the "Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic" by Jana Sterbak. In 1991, this artist took 50 pounds of raw flank steaks and stiched them together to make a dress. It was most famously displayed at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. It was meant to show the contrast between vanity and bodily decay. But this made a lot of Canadians upset, and they protested the work by mailing in food scraps!

Some things will really make you question yourself on what is considered art, but by reading and learning about it all, it helps you have a more open mind. I know both Milton Graser and Jana Sterbak have helped me change my mindset a little bit tonight!