Art is not pure decoration
Art is not politics
Art is not made with an ideological motive as its prime reason
Art is not the sum of all life or experience
An aside that has little to do with the above but sheds some light on Ruskin
Some thoughts on what art is not...
Art is not objects without anything to engage the viewer (this could be a contentious one)
Art is not objects that are banal, aesthetically uninspiring, or lacking in symbollic or informative conent - in otherwords meaningless
Art is not only process
Art is not mechanical
Art exists as a method for the communication of various forms of
experience, be that emotional, intellectual, spiritual, political or conceptual. This occurs within a cultural environment. This communication takes the form of expression, physically and conceptually, of relationships of physical and/or conceptual objects, at one or more conceptual levels. Artistic expression is the result of intuitive invention undertaken with a sense of exploration, even of play, and a desire to communicate some concept or experience to others through a physical medium.
The people who take part in this intuitive invention identify themselves as artists. Art is what is encountered by any who come into contact with the objects or situations arranged by those artists. These people are considered to be the artist's audience.
To fully appreciate an art form the person experiencing the art may require some level of understanding - visual, aural, or conceptual - of the medium used, or its manifestation within its current cultural context.
