Can art be only recognized by its context or are you able to identify it in any circumstance? I am asking you this because Paul from Austria, that comes often to my blog, raised this question last week quoting an experience that the Washington post made with the violinist Joshua Bell in the subway in Washington D.C.
You can read the story here.
I am looking forward to your opinion.
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What is art? Nature is the consumate artist and her work is all around us, after all the art we make is just another form of creation.
I don’t believe it has anything to do with context. For me one of the most revealing lines in the article was where the passers by were descrbied as ghosts and Johsua Bell as the only real person there. Why do we need to be told that we are witnessing art before we experience it? If we are fully awake and present to the moment we don’t.
But we might still differ in our tastes.
Love and belssings
Rebecca
I think sometimes we just have to be in the right mood for art, sort of prepared in soul to be able to receive it. (You can’t jump in a candle-light dinner either, you prepare yourself in it, calming down internally beforehand).
On the other hand, the everyday life forces us to be soooo composed all the time that we simply forget to be spontaneous, or at least we are less often spontaneous than we could be. Stuck in our 24-hour super-composed state of mind, we often don’t notice things, events, people, scents, voices, beauties and cuties, and even when we notice, we just can’t “switch” in mind and don’t realize that we note something particular.
Greetings to Paulo & all bloggers.
I was deeply touched by the story when I read it. I think that many of the passing people heard the amazing music but were too buzy or too afraid to actually stop. By stopping one can expose to a conversation with strangers and we are rarely prepared to do so during the rush hour…Our minds are full of worries and things that must be done. Or we are tired and can´t wait to go home where it´s safe and warm and where nothing unexpected should threaten our well protected inner world. Perhaps many of those people with stonefaces and eyes that won´t look straight at anybody, did say at home; I heard this wonderfull violinplayer today on my way home… I know I hear this exellent fluitpalyer on my way home really often but I am too anxious to get home and take off my shoes and just relax, that I won´t stop and actually listen to her. Perhaps someday I will stop for a moment. I think that an ordinary people ( like myself) will need a context and guidance with art, but if one is very artistic and creative by nature, he/she will experience and identfy art by instinct anywhere.
It seems that, as my dearest Annie states, ‘the system’ is what makes a piece of art recognisable and worth noticing. Because art is ‘immeasurable’, and the same applies to almost every aspect of intellectual work. Culture plays a big role of refining our senses and learn to be able to experience the .. dreamworld. Some are born with this ability. They ‘live’ in the .. lighter spheres . They are called in my country, the people of the “Light elements” in a scornful way. I call them the Poets of life. They see, look and experience beauty in everything. They have … always the .. time to smell a flower, to listen to the birds singing and to a .. violin or piano sounding in .. the background. Because for them it is not the … background, but their real cosmos.
LOVE,
Thelma
p.s. I was once walking in crowded London and suddenly I heart music. I stopped and said to my daughters it is … Mozart!! At that moment a gentleman looked amazed at me and asked me: from which country do you come? When I said Cyprus he looked at me more … amazed and in … disbelief!;] T.
I read that story a while back in the newspaper. Fascinating!!
It makes me wonder how many people who pay big money to go to his concert actually recognise the music as being skillfully and soulfully played and how many of them are there because they want to “appear” cultured lol
Did you notice how the kid wanted to stop and listen. Children, as Picasso said, are natural artists, they lose their ability as they grow. I bet that kid recognised it as a special sound, wasn’t so caught up in his own thoughts not to see and feel around him.
Art = Expression – I can’t see how it would need to be localised to be considered art.
Kathleen xx
Kathleen
Does Context make art?
What is art? Is art a music or is the art the art drawn by Leonardo da Vinci or by Jules Joseph. Is art the drawing that shows the artist caliber? What is that we called art? A writer art could be the text that he inputs in his plain white paper. A musician art could be the music that he plays in the audience. A lover art could be the love he shows for his lover. Art could come in many form, shapes and size. It has no limit and no boundary.
Art to me could be nothing to other. The way look at art is also different and the perception can vary from the person to the other person. Art has value because artist has created it. The value could also differ depending upon the time and circumstances.
One person can give more value to the “same stuff” and other could give no value at all. But great art is appreciated by all. There are no person without a talent. Everybody in the world comes with the talent. The showing off the talent of the person could result into the performance. The performance could give the impact to his/her audience.
Depending upon the impact his art is appreciated or depreciated. There are no good or bad artist there are only artist. The formulation of good or bad depends upon the taste of the person. These taste vary depending upon the time and the circumstance.
Some artist could show off there talent in the right place at the right time and there work is valued. But some artist could not get the right place to show there potential. To those who does not get the right place to show off there talent they choose the place where there are large number of the audience.
For example, If you consider me as the artist. Or, let us suppose for a while that I am a artist and my job is to write a comment on your blog. Now, this might not be considered a fantastic art because writing a blog is just putting an opinion on the title of the author. Well, Let us say- this is very least form of art. Which could be defined as the creation of comments depending upon your own personal experience and expertise in the field you are talking. Now, When you read all those artist and there comments, we think that they all have point to make and they are saying some valuable things about the same topic.
When every body is giving his thoughts and ideas on the same topic you cannot say that all of these people are good or great artist but you can at least say that every body is right. or every body has some form of talent. Another perspective to look at these people or least artist is that, why are they here? Most of them just are here to put the comments or thoughts or share there opinion but if you take me for example, then I am here because I have audience who are equally participating in the discussion of the topic which I am interested.
When I have large number of audience with greater thoughts and insights then surely there is the larger the impact. Well, People can always have different opinion on any of the other person’s opinion.
Therefore, Context is important but not very important. For example, the musician near the busy streets of the market. Well, who will notice if he was the great musician or not great musician. Simply because, every body is moving on. There are people who are busy in there own problems. They do not have time to listen and even if very few are interested they are free or have nothing to do.
Every body is doing there work at that period of the time. Some are getting late for there work, some have train to catch, some just had fight with there partner, some is busy in thinking for there next project, some are going for the shopping, some are going to buy a drink and so on. These people are running for nothing. Why? If I have to live my life my way, I listen to what my inner voice has to say, there are always difference but which one is right and which one is wrong can be easily distinguished.
Does beauty have to be in context to be appreciated?
Haven`t it happened one that while passing next to some form of painting,or hearing some form of music,your soul is magically emprisoned in what you like to think is a rythm,and you become restless till that rythm has made sense?
for someone special……..hey am 16year and i read all your books and stories and my wish is meet u one day my name is walaamosmar thank you
i love u paulooooooooooooooo
I think art speaks to the individual soul. Of course, many people can see the same beauty in a particular thing, but sometimes I believe that art communicates in a unique way towards the corresponding individual. So ultimately, I think that art can be identified in any circumstance because art can be infinite in its meaning and beauty.
Credo che una persona sensibile al bello, con animo gentile riconosca l’arte dappertutto, perchè in lei c’è questa predisposizione.
La gentilezza, la delicatezza portano a riconoscere l’arte in tutte le sue forme, magari senza comprenderla.
No, Context does not make art.
Art is an expression. An expression that varies in impact depending on the willingness of a viewer to receive it.
If no one is willing to receive it – is it still art? Yes – if there was at least one person who created it with intention.
Sir,
Well First let me ask thee that what is an art.for me its a kind of a creativity that really inspires you and your emotions.It has the effect to motivate you..As for as the context it truely represents a creative approach and that it enables the reader to be inspired…So context is a form of art..Apart from the context, every little tinge is an art..The human is an art of Almighty, the nature ofcourse…the valor and endurance is an art of a human, the insight and conscience is the art of soul …
EVERYTHING IS AN ART!!!!
Thank you for sharing a very interesting story. I think art is like a love. (To be honest, I cannot explain what I mean by this.) But if you love it, you love it and you live in it. So my answer for this question would be… art can recognized without its context. love
I think art and its appreciation, is subjective, and part of a contextual package. For instance to appreciate some modern art, I would have to be in a space where I had the time to really look at it in detail to appreciate it, and then I may or may not like it. On the other hand put me in a room full of Monet, and a day to spend there and I’d be in rapture.
Put those pieces of Monet along the walls of the train station, and I would think ‘ah, how wonderful,’ even if unable to stop and view them. Put the modern art there and I don’t think I’d have much of a reaction at all. Put an unknown artist there in a style I appreciate and I would feel frustrated, if I didn’t have the time to experience what they had to offer.
Art offers an experinece, but we have to be open to recieve it, and I guess therein lies the importance of context.
The beard is in need of a trim.
:D
Impressionante a quase que total indiferença dos passantes ao violinista que tocava tão lindamente. Neste contexto, eu diria que a arte então precisaria estar acompanhada de todo o jogo de cena para ser considerada como tal… Pena.
Mas desconfio que, no Brasil, rapidamente se formaria uma rodinha de expectadores em volta do músico rs.
grande beijo de sua fã!
With the right name, you can call everything you create, art. And the people around you will look at it and call it; beautiful, marvellous … etc.
With the wrong name, no one will even take a second look at your product. Nobody will notice… And if they do, they will shake their heads and fell pity for you…
Great question! The artist does not need a context to create, but perhaps the observer needs the context to perceive. This again is related to where the observer is coming from, or how open he/she is to the flow of art everywhere. This is a great point for artists to consider when they create, it is for the joy of creation, not the appreciation that we create.
Thanks,
Sherry (EvolutionInConsciousness.blogspot.com)
life is art -it depends on whether we are living or walking around dead ..to how context it is ..Blessings Tania
I believe that i can find art or the art relation in all and every aspect in this actual life, it doesnt have to be only in the context, u can see natural art beuty or ugliness terror or sadness and u can see in between the nature of art. u have to open urself into this moment of thinking and feel it here and there,
some time we r just so bussy in everyday issues that we dont even see around us. but i believe that if we take a moment or more in every were around us- we can alwys find art!!!!!
i think art is a language, art is a way that some1 speaks what’s inside him without saying the words, art is an amazing three letters word!
the Context of art is art itself…
moi , je note que seuls les enfants se sont arrêtés pour écouter et voulaient rester
gardons toujours notrê âme d’enfant , et sachons nous émerveiller et ne pas râter tant de choses
I note that only the children stopped to listen to and wanted to stay
Roaches always ours child’s soul, and let us know how to be amazed and not lose so many things
Art is where ever we understand to look for it. Art isn´t as simple as I tauhgt few years ago. Art is a subjective feeling and what is art to me, isn´t nessessarely art to you. “Art is art when someone says it is” someone has said and that´s it… I don´t understand people who crities work of art of someone else because art grows from feelings, out of life itself and it is always lived life of someone or a dream that is waiting to come real. I creat art by living like everyone else. We just need to see that. I love Stenvalls ducks and music what makes me feel things more deeply, sometimes a picture makes me understand what is missing in my life or helps me undrestand choihes I have made – art is therapy, art is life, art is something what makes me suprice over and over again. I am not artist, I just life…
I think art can be reconized anywhere. Altough people in rushhour might not take the time to enjoy it because they dont want to arrive late at their jobs.
If I look at myself, if I had time I would surely stop and listen. But if I want to catch a train, I might hear it, think it is beautyfull but catch the train anyway.
I think you can see art in anything. What is art anyway?
Is nature art?
You can see it in anything. Its just your will to see it an to take time to enjoy it.
If people pay a lot of money to go out to a theater then the expect it and are in the mood an have the time to enjoy it.
Love,
Mirjam
Context. Incognito. Perception.
The experiment copied the universe in its simplicity. It was there for everyone, though only a few actually saw it. In plain cloths, would Gandhi or Jesus be noticed walking about the 5th Avenue or eating fish and chips in Hyde Park?
As the whole does not fit into the part, one would probably not find by chance what one is not looking for.
“When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with wisdom.” The Kybalion
Hernan
I don’t know about context, all I think if it moves me it is art in whatever form.
Art is often a nudge, a vague feeling, a reflection of something unexplained and maybe the way an image or sound presents itself, it is usually unexpected when it moves, well for me anyway.
One day after a awful event in our town the street musician was playing panpipes, it seemed to mingle with sunbeams with the memory and alter the mood of the crowd .
Thank you for this question.
I don’t know about context, all I think if it moves me it is art in whatever form.
Art is often a nudge, a vague feeling, a reflection of something unexplained and maybe the way an image or sound presents itself, it is usually expected when it moves, well for me anyway.
One day after a awful event in our town the street musician was playing panpipes, it seemed to mingle with sunbeams with the memory and alter the mood of the crowd .
Thank you for this question.
ciao torgeir!
sono triste nel pensare all’arte come a un mestiere. l’arte può diventare un mestiere ma gli artisti non sono solo quelli che prendono soldi per il loro operato! non so bene cosa sia successo in quel posto, ma è inutile fare prove del genere in un contesto di tutti i giorni come la metropolitana! l’arte dovrebbe essere riconosciuta in ogni contesto, ma è il concetto d’arte che c’è nella testa delle persone che è sbagliato!
How sad that our work and our schedules keep us from stopping…even for a few minutes to receive the gift of this man’s beautiful music. I have been in that zone of focusing only on my responsibilities and I hope to never be that way again. If I were to hear him today, I would have to be late for my appt. or job or school but I would have that moment of beautiful music flowing through my soul for a long time. Thank you Paul from Austria for sharing this!
I think life is art.
And art is in the eye of the beholder.
It is all perception.
(and opinion, which we all have)
With Palms together,
Molly
Art is everywhere…art is in a plate of food, in how the ocean waves turn stones in beautiful sculptures…In general I think nature is a wonderful “artist”…art is sounds of a storm, and art is also the “regular art”…this question touches in what is art, and the answer is very subjective. Also we all posses the capacity to do art…art is a right and should be (it is in my case) part of our daily lives…art is what help us relate to others better, to get know know us better, to appreciate nature and its gifts…loving is art…it all can be art in my eyes…
A produced piece of work, whether a painting, a piece of music, a book (Art if you will) may cause a subjective reaction from the observer. It may be a positive, neutral or negative reaction. It is not right or wrong. It just is. Just because a famous(I never heard of the young man in the article, but that isn’t my thing) person played music in a public place and didn’t do well commercially, doesn’t make what he did any less significant. The fact that there was joy in the production should really be enough. As long as one person is moved and touched by it is enough in my opinion to make the experiment successful. To produce art that may never be observed by another doesn’t make it anything less than what it is, a piece of Art.
For me, a good thumbnail rule of esthetics is that whatever the context – an exhibition, a museum or the street – if you can’t tell whether a monkey or a human did it, then it’s status as art is questionable…
I remember well the story.I think is very important education,the background of the listeners,in that case.I had very often bad surprises,when I tried to have conversation on art,or literature with people that had not someone who guide them in those fields.I was like an alien,just from another planet.I will say only one .During the classes of literature,we had from Milton”Paradise lost”.Our prof said that we are among few that are able to see the value of the poem,to enjoy the reading,but a normal person who come home tired from work,has childrens crying,house chores,has no pleasure in such things,no interest.I dint want to believe that,I was so impressed of some lines from Miltons poem.But the case did that my brother visited me.I tried to read him some of the most touching lines,and I asked him”Isnt marvelous?”.He said no,more,he said to me stop reading that.Well,maybe I was not straight to the point,what I wanted to say is that to see the value of an composition,sculpture,book,one need cultural education,and not little.
Surely there are different types of people, more or less sensitive, not all love the art and not everyone understands.
Certainly when i went to school in Switzerland and passed through the train station, i loved listening to the musicians, some with his violin, others with his guitar, others with his accordion.
It’s the same effect as taking an iPod, music is always an element of inspiration.
All context is adaptable to art, as Marcel Duchamp’s art show with his Dada (ready-made).
But it is true that some people feel irritated, perhaps because most are locked into the prejudices of the street’s people, and don’t see the art of a person who lives on street, as he can, or cause he wants life his way like this.
For me it’s an honor to can admire the street artist, and i’m ready to any show.
“La critique est aisée et l’art est difficile” Voltaire
I thought this was an excellent experiment by the Washington Post. For me it confirms my feelings about art. I think art speaks to people’s sensitivities. True art, no matter what the context may be is meant to evoke people’s feelings. You don’t have to be an art connoisseur to appreciate art, you either feel it, or you don’t. The context allows people to feel better about themselves in relation to status and society; it does not change the condition of the art, only the perception of the audience.
Dear Paolo,
Thank you for this story!
I´ve put of a dead-line today because I´m very touched by the article linked here about this.
And no, I do not think that the context creates art, but as it frames art it can sharpen our attention towards the art in question.
I believe life is in flow and communicating with us all the time.
The question is how open and present are we? And what are we aware about, past, future or are we present…
I believe art is manifested to remind us of our original beauty and the context is there to sharpen our focus towards the message the art carries.
Art is focus. When theres no focus, theres no art.
Hi Paulo and friends,
Art is omnipresent and needs no introduction, all that is required is the use of our senses.
Our mind to be still and open to the beauty that is around us.
When we loose our ability to identify with beauty,independently we have lost the way………..
It would appear from this trial, test of perception by the washingston post that people are fickle and need to rely more on their instincts.
What a lost opportunity to enjoy a free cocert from a gifted violinist.
Carol
We are social beings. The actions of others impact the way we live. Had a solid group of people who could recognize the violinist’s genius congregated in front of him, it would have caused others to try and listen to the beauty at hand. Why the critical mass didn’t form for Bell is difficult to understand, especially in Washington D.C.
brilliant….. ive literally (scuse the pun) just finshed writing “You are your own art”
In my opinion, it’s a real human quality to be able to identify Art everywhere, because I think Art is everywhere.
It’s a pity to see that people can’t open there heart and there eyes in the street like they do in a museum. I’m agree with Sido, lot’s of people can’t see or hear in every circumstances. They have to be in a place, prepare to look or listen.
But I really think Art is everywhere : it’s a way of create, imagine and feel. And you can receive creation, imagination and feelings everywhere.
(Sorry for my terrible english)
Happy to join this blog,
Olá Paulo, eu acredito que a arte estão em essência na alma de quem a ve. Logo, contextos não são tão importantes assim.
O brasileiro Hermeto Pascoal é capaz de ver arte em tudo, como em sapos na lagoa, como visto nesses vídeos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Qm-Z5OsHw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhdQiZflpxY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGaaxlvP-BA&feature=related
da mesma forma, Charles Chaplin diz que a Beleza existe em tudo, até no “mau”, porém apenas os poetas e artistas podem ve-la.
Abraços grandes!
I think that a lot nobody do not look and do not listen in quite circumstance.
They are imprisoned into their routine and then the eyes do not see, and their ears do not listen they are imprisoned into their routine and then the eyes do not see, and their ears do not hear(understand,listen)
They give themselves a precise moment to open their eyes (cinema) or to listen to (concert, theater), but is not opened to the world as before: they lost the contact with their senses and with the wealth of the world which surrounds them
Too much materialism, of égoisme, individuality cut the link with the nature, the man and the world
The meeting ” of the economic congress ” of January, 2009 has to take into account the individual as nobody and not as an entity of work, production of wealth (too much wealth on Tuesday the wealth Paulo)
i hope
I think that art is just like a brainwave: it talks with symbols. And we know that symbols are very difficult to recognize and understand outside their context without an interpreter. And without an interpreter, often art is snubbed as a product of someone’s “craziness”.
I feel art can be recognised only in a context, without context it has no meaning.
art has its presence only so long as its observer can recognise it as art.
now comes the catch
that art which applies to a wider reange of contexts becomes better known ( obviously ) and depending upon our ability to see contexts we can see art in ultimately everything ( little bit spirituality here ), if we beleive those who have cliamed thus or if we strat experimenting with their directions !
by the way, appreciation of beauty is prerogative of an unhurried mind; as peaceful, as stress free one is at the moment of facing beauty, that much more one can appreciate her. expecting a modern wo/man who is hurring off to punch in in time, expecting him/her to appreciate beauty is a bit too much, no !
love
aditya
Je pense que beaucoup de personne ne regardent pas et n’entendent pas en toutes circonstance.
ils sont emprisonnés dans leur routine et alors leurs yeux ne voient pas , et leurs oreilles n’entendent pas
ils se donnent un moment précis pour ouvrir leurs yeux (cinéma) ou pour écouter ( concert , théâtre ) ; mais ne sont pas ouvert au monde comme avant : ils ont perdu le contact avec leurs sens et avec les richesses du monde qui les entoure
trop de matérialisme , d’égoisme , d’individualité coupent le lien avec la nature , l’homme et le monde
le rendez-vous “du congrès économique ” de janvier 2009 doit prendre en compte l’individu en tant que personne et non en tant qu’une entité de travail , de production de richesse ( trop de richesse tue la richesse Paulo )
sorry my translator is out
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