As a musician, I have an open-mind when it comes to aesthetic expression. That being said, I still have a hard time looking at a Jackson Pollock painting and experiencing the same type of pleasure that I do when I view Monet's "Beach in Pourville."
Beach.
Bile?
Angela Montefinise, a writer for the Huffington Post, published an article on the very question of defining art. Based on the experts she interviewed, including Bard College President Leon Botstein, the question of art being a definitive entity exists in modern discussions. Botsein states that "the important question is, what is art? Is there such a thing? Does it exist and how do we recognize it?"
Recognizing, according to Botsein, is the essential part of defining art. "[The artists are] trying to communicate with us, with others who participate in this art in a way that somehow suggests or communicates something of real value that can't be said or can't be easily described." Artists communicate what cannot be spoken through a medium which does not speak but shows.
And because it cannot be spoken, it cannot be quantified. "So much of what we do in school gets compared on a metrical level...it's all measurable. Art is beginning to create criteria of value that is not all about measurement."
The crux of Botsein's viewpoint, though, is that art prevents the most dangerous entity known to humanity: boredom.
"Boredom creates a sense of meaningless, pointlessness. It destroys our sense of the power of time. The finding or creating of beauty in the world is enormous protection against a sense of meaningless and resentment and pointlessness."
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