We explain what a work of art is, how works of art can be classified and what their main characteristics are.
What is a work of art?
A work of art is a creation that has an aesthetic purpose and that is carried out using artistic techniques. That is, it is the process or product of an art, which can be visual, scenic, musical, literary or a combination of various disciplines.
Traditionally it is assumed that a work of art is a object that represents the most transcendent universal values of humanity or that in any case entails an important reflection regarding them. However, the criteria regarding what is or is not art has been a matter of debate since Antiquity.
Art is a social construction, so The definition of a work of art depends on historical and cultural conditions. Furthermore, works of art have an important subjective component, which means that the way they are made and interpreted can even vary from person to person.
This does not mean that it is impossible to determine what a work of art is. Although artistic expression is intuitive and inherent to the human condition, art, like many other areas of knowledge, has specific mechanisms to mark its limits. These limits change according to culture and time, but they are always part of a certain agreement that is usually established among experts and progressively expanded to the public.
Academies and galleries, museums, researchers, critics, curators, directors, producers and specialists in different fields of art, as well as the artists themselves, form a complex system that guides or determines with their ideas and proposals. what can be considered a work of art at a given moment in history.
A good example of this is the work Fountain (1917), a common ceramic urinal that was exhibited in a museum by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) more than a hundred years ago as an irreverent act, and which today is valued as a masterpiece, precisely for the way in which that gesture forever transformed the understanding of art.
Currently, the idea of a work of art is largely related to criticism and debate around fundamental concepts of history, society and, especially, art itself.
Masterpiece: It is the term used to refer to works of art that, due to their aesthetic quality or other reasons, stand out and become a reference in their discipline, genre or style at a given time. They can be considered part of the cultural heritage of humanity and represent an important testimony of the societies that generate and exalt them.
- See also: Contemporary art
Characteristics of a work of art
(Polyphemus painter. (660 BC). Eleusinian amphora). (Image: Napoleon Vier)
In general terms, works of art are characterized by being:
- Durable. Works of art, even immaterial or ephemeral ones, have the quality of remaining in the cultural imagination and can be exhibited, evoked or reconstructed beyond the death of their author.
- Contextual. A work of art is always determined by the cultural, social and historical context in which it is produced, perceived or studied. Creations that are works of art in a certain time and place may not be works of art in another time or context.
- Poetics. The poetic quality of any work of art refers to the use of metaphors and symbols to express meanings that evoke ideas, experiences or emotions.
- Valuable. Works of art have intrinsic value, which can be aesthetic, cultural or historical, but they can also have social, educational, documentary and economic value.
Types of works of art
Works of art can be classified under very different criteria. Depending on the language used to carry them out, they are classified as:
- visual works. They are works made with the purpose of being appreciated mainly with sight, although they can also be directed to other senses. Among them are works of painting, sculpture, drawing, illustration, engraving, photography, installation, video art and digital art.
- Sound works. They are works that are fundamentally composed to be heard. These include songs and musical pieces of all kinds, as well as sound art productions.
- literary works. They are works that use the word as a means of artistic expression. Among them are literary works in their different genres: poetry, essay, playwriting, narrative, comic strip, graphic novel, among others.
- theatrical works. They are works created in order to be presented live in front of an audience and in which the body is used as an expressive means. Among them are theater, dance, circus, performance, opera and ballet.
- cinematographic works. They are works that use movement and sound to tell stories or generate atmospheres, like movies. They are usually produced by large teams of professionals and require specialized devices such as cameras, lights, rails and other elements.
Importance of works of art
(Hieronymus Bosch. (c. 1505). The garden of delights).
The debate around the role of art dates back to Ancient Greece. Works of art can be analyzed considering the specific elements that constitute them (whether material or immaterial) or their intellectual, social, historical or other implications. In this sense, they are studied by disciplines as diverse as sociology, anthropology, philosophy, education, design, psychology, history and even theology or the exact sciences.
Each of these perspectives offers an answer about the place of artistic production in a given context, so there is no single way to determine what the importance of a work of art lies in. However, it is undeniable that Works of art have a deep relationship with the human condition, with the way we live in the world and how much we know or ignore about him and ourselves.
Language of art
The language of art is medium that an artistic form uses to generate meaning. Each art form has its own language, which can be visual (such as painting or sculpture), scenic (such as theater or dance), literary (such as narrative or poetry) or a combination of them (such as cinema). , performance or video art).
It is called language because it is a form of communication, even if it has multiple or hidden meanings.
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References
- Danto, A. C. (2010). After the end of art. Contemporary art and the edge of history. Paidós.
- Gombrich, E. H. (1997). The history of art. Phaidon.
- Lippard, L. (1997). Six Years. The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. University Of California Press.
- Tatarkiewicz, W. (2001). History of six ideas. Art, beauty, form, creativity, mimesis, aesthetic experience. Technos.
