What Is Art?

​What Is Art?
​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWhat is Art? (Russian: Что такое искусство? Chto takoye iskusstvo?) is a book by Leo Tolstoy. It was completed in Russian in 1897 but first published in English due to difficulties with the Russian censors.

Tolstoy cites the time, effort, public funds, and public respect spent on art and artists as well as the imprecision of general opinions on art as reason for writing the book. In his words, "it is difficult to say what is meant by art, and especially what is good, useful art, art for the sake of which we might condone such sacrifices as are being offered at its shrine".

Throughout the book Tolstoy demonstrates an "unremitting moralism", evaluating artworks in light of his radical Christian ethics, and displaying a willingness to dismiss accepted masters, including Wagner, Shakespeare, and Dante, as well as the bulk of his own writings.

Having rejected the use of beauty in definitions of art (see aesthetic theory), Tolstoy conceptualises art as anything that communicates emotion: "Art begins when a man, with the purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs".

This view of art is inclusive: "jokes", "home decoration", and "church services" may all be considered art as long as they convey feeling. It is also amoral: "[f]eelings … very bad and very good, if only they infect the reader … constitute the subject of art".

Tolstoy also notes that the "sincerity" of the artist—that is, the extent to which the artist "experiences the feeling he conveys"—influences the infection.
Evaluating the content of art

While Tolstoy's basic conception of art is broad and amoral, his idea of "good" art is strict and moralistic, based on what he sees as the function of art in the development of humanity:

just as in the evolution of knowledge - that is, the forcing out and supplanting of mistaken and unnecessary knowledge by truer and more necessary knowledge - so the evolution of feelings takes place by means of art, replacing lower feelings, less kind and less needed for the good of humanity, by kinder feelings, more needed for that good. This is the purpose of art.
Christian art

Tolstoy's analysis is influenced by his radical Christian views (see The Kingdom of God is Within You), views which led him to be excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. He states that Christian art, rooted in "the consciousness of sonship to God and the brotherhood of men":

can evoke reverence for each man's dignity, for every animal’s life, it can evoke the shame of luxury, of violence, of revenge, of using for one’s pleasure objects that are a necessity for other people, it can make people sacrifice themselves to serve others freely and joyfully, without noticing it.

Ultimately, "by calling up the feelings of brotherhood and love in people under imaginary conditions, religious art will accustom people to experiencing the same feelings in reality under the same conditions".
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Tolstoy's examples: Schiller's The Robbers, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities and The Chimes, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead, George Eliot's Adam Bede, Ge's Judgement, Liezen-Mayer's Signing the Death Sentence, and paintings "portraying the labouring man with respect and love" such as those by Millet, Breton, Lhermitte, and Defregger.
Universal art
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"Universal" art illustrates that people are "already united in the oneness of life's joys and sorrows" by communicating "feelings of the simplest, most everyday sort, accessible to all people without exception, such as the feelings of merriment, tenderness, cheerfulness, peacefulness, and so on". Tolstoy contrasts this ideal with art that is partisan in nature, whether it be by class, religion, nation, or style.

Tolstoy's examples: he mentions, with many qualifiers, the works of Cervantes, Dickens, Moliere, Gogol, and Pushkin, comparing all of these unfavourably to the story of Joseph. In music he commends a violin aria of Bach, the E-flat major nocturne of Chopin, and "selected passages" from Schubert, Haydn, Chopin, and Mozart. He also speaks briefly of genre paintings and landscapes.
Obscurity versus accessibility
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Tolstoy notes the susceptibility of his contemporaries to the "charm of obscurity". Works have become laden with "euphemisms, mythological and historical allusions", and general "vagueness, mysteriousness, obscurity and inaccessibility to the masses". Tolstoy lambastes such works, insisting that art can and should be comprehensible to everyone. Having emphasised that art has a function in the improvement of humanity - capable of expressing man’s best sentiment - he finds it offensive that artists should be so wilfully and arrogantly abstruse.
Artificiality

One criticism Tolstoy levels against art is that at some point it "ceased to be sincere and became artificial and cerebral", leading to the creation of millions of works of technical brilliance but few of honourable sentiment. Tolstoy outlines four common markers of bad art: these are not however considered the canon or ultimate indicators

1. Borrowing
2. Imitation
3. Effectfulness
4. Diversion

Borrowing
Involves recycling and concentrating elements from other works, typical examples of which are: "maidens, warriors, shepherds, hermits, angels, devils in all forms, moonlight, thunderstorms, mountains, the sea, precipices, flowers, long hair, lions, the lamb, the dove, the nightingale".

Imitation
Imitation is highly descriptive realism, where painting becomes photography, or a scene in a book becomes a listing of facial expressions, tone of voice, the setting, and so on. Any potential communication of feeling is "disrupted by the superfluity of details".

Effectfulness
Reliance on "strikingness", often involving contrasts of "horrible and tender, beautiful and ugly, loud and soft, dark and light", descriptions of lust, "crescendo and complication", unexpected changes in rhythm, tempo, etc. Tolstoy contends that works marked by such techniques "do not convey any feeling, but only affect the nerves".

Diversion
Diversion is "an intellectual interest added to the work of art", such as the melding of documentary and fiction, as well as the writing of novels, poetry, and music "in such a way that they must be puzzled out". All such works do not correspond with Tolstoy's view of art as the infection of others with feelings previously experienced, and his exhortation that art be "universal" in appeal.

​​The Louvre in Paris, France, was the most visited art museum in the world in 2018.

​​The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

​An art museum is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art, art museums are often used as a venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as performance arts, music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections.
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Gallery is a general term for any building or room used to display art, but unlike an art gallery operated by an art dealer, works from the collection of an art museum are not generally for sale, but held in public trust. Removal of a work from the collection of a museum is deaccessioning, a process defined by the museum's collection management policy.

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Bhopal Tribal Museum:  With grants mostly from the State, but also from the Central Government, the Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum has taken shape. Not as a storehouse of dead objects, but with the labours of a thousand tribal artistes arriving in batches, from every part of MP, recasting myth and life in amazing visuals, out of traditional materials like wood, iron, jute, mud, clay, straw, hemp and leaves, as well as canvas, acrylic and glass. Such is the sense of ownership of these tribal artisans, that when recently rains flooded the museum the residing tribal artistes didnt wait for instructions but salvaged everything themselves.

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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission.
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Sarena Bhargava, BFA, MFA

 ​The artistry of Sarena Bhargava may be found among various means, from beautifully curated collections to galleries to industrial artwork and the movie screen. First-generation American Indian, Sarena is a master of sculpture, welding, painting, and woodwork as shown below, holding a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Arts.

Sarena has commissioned sculpture work housed within the permanent collection of Cal State Fullerton (her baccalaureate alma mater). Sarena has also collaborated with Disneyland Tokyo, Disneyland (Anaheim, CA, USA) and Universal Studios Hollywood on industrial artwork.

Sarena’s sculpture work and artistic credits within the movie industry span two decades. You may learn more about Sarena’s filmography at the International Movie Database (IMBd) by clicking here. MORE INFORMATION ON HER ART WORK . . . .

​In recent years, woodturning has become an artistic craving for Sarena’s creative expression, allowing her to explore the organic splendor and diverse energy of wood. Each piece has a story to share and is transformed into a distinctively inspired expression of beauty and function.

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Namita Kapoor in Art & Dance

​I am a South Asian choreographer, rhythm dancer and visual artist interested in cross-cultural work that tackles my own questions of spiritual and cultural identity while in turn investigating its role in contemporary society. Although I express myself through the different mediums of painting and percussive dance it is movement, rhythm and the spiritual body that remains a constant theme throughout all of my work. This spiritual body stems from a deep connection to my roots in Hindu philosophy and mythology and is ultimately expressed through multidisciplinary practices in jazz and Indian dance, tap and body percussion and mixed media visual art.

Growing up in a suburban white neighborhood as a first generation born Indian-American, my access to classical Indian dance and music was limited. My exposure to these forms came later through my studies at UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Department. As I began mining my roots, I made an astonishing discovery: Jazz dance originated with Jack Cole, a former Denishawn dancer who studied classical South Indian bharatanatyam dance. His gift for setting the movements of East Indian dance to the swing beat of jazz music, a style which eventually earned the moniker “Hindu swing,” left an indelible mark on American dance. This specific discovery shed light on my devotion to jazz music and dance and has brought forth multidisciplinary explorations with Indian Classical dancers, choreographers and musicians.

I enjoy making collaborative works with other artists that engage and challenge my multi-layered interests. While rhythm and line play an integral role in my choreography, I enjoy bringing together live music, video installation, visual art and dance into one space to blur lines between mediums. For me, art is music to the eyes, music is dance to the ears, and dance is art to the soul.

​" Art is Music to the Eyes, Music is Dance to the Ears, Dance is Art to the Soul. "  -Namita Kapoor

Namita Kapoor is a contemporary artist living and working in San Francisco, California. Drawing from her dual backgrounds as both a South Asian and an American, her work is a hybrid of Western media, craft, ornament, and symbolism. Kapoor’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including recent solo exhibitions with Meyerovich Gallery, Taj Campton San Francisco, Gensler and Bo Concept. Her work has been shown at the Gel Gallery in Reykjavik Iceland and group exhibitions at Chelsea Art Museum, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts NYC, Women Made Gallery in Chicago and the Transcultural Exchange Project in India and China. In addition, her works have been shown throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Michael Rosenthal Gallery, Diego Rivera Gallery, ProArts Gallery, Axis Gallery and the Soma Arts Cultural Center. She has paintings and murals in the public collections of St. Louis Missouri, Houston, Texas, and Iceland. Her work has been reviewed in the Sf Chronicle, SF Examiner, Art Business News, San Francisco Magazine, 944, Contra Costa Times, East Bay Express and the Reykjavik Grapevine.

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How to Buy Art?

​Co-authored by wikiHow Staff
​Last Updated: March 28, 2019 

Choosing and purchasing artwork can be intimidating to someone who isn't familiar with art galleries, auctions, or artists. Whether you are interested in starting a valuable collection or simply looking for a piece that would look great in your home, learning what you can about the art world will help you make the best decision for your circumstances. By researching the type of art, you want, setting a budget, and buying from the right venue, you can make buying art a lot less daunting of a process.

Part1
Buying Art for Pleasure

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Set a flexible budget to stick to when buying art. Before you go out to buy a piece of art, you’ll need to know how much money you’re comfortable spending on it. Set a price you’re willing to pay for art and be willing to spend a little bit more for a piece that you particularly love.

• This is especially important for buying art at an auction, as it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the auction and end up spending way more money than you intended to.

​2
Go for art that gives you a positive feeling. Stand in front of the art you are thinking of purchasing. Ask yourself how you feel: happy, soulful, nostalgic, thoughtful, excited? If you feel unhappy, intimidated, awkward, or angry when you look at the art, you might not want to keep it in your home.

• Purchase work you and the people you live with enjoy, rather than work you think visitors might admire

​3
Buy art locally to support local artists. If you’re interested in buying art for pleasure, you’re probably also interested in helping to make sure artists are always able to get their work out to the public. Consider attending open studios, art fairs, boutiques, and gallery openings, and buying some of the artwork to support artists in your local area.

• If possible, take part in any studio visits that local artists put on. These give you the opportunity to visit and talk to artists in their studios, see the art they’ve recently produced or are currently working on, and give them feedback.
• If you like art that's on display in a coffee shop or restaurant, find out if it’s available for purchase.

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Part2
Buying Art from Galleries and Auctions

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Do a dry run at an art auction before actually participating in one. If you’re buying art at an auction for the first time, you may get caught up in the fast speed and excitement of it all and feel overwhelmed. Before you go to an art auction to make a purchase, attend one without buying anything just to get used to the rhythm and flow of it.

• If you want to get a taste of what it’s like to actually participate, consider going to an auction and not bidding more than a very small amount of money (e.g., $10). This way, you can get a sense of what it’s like to take part in an auction without any real risk.
• This is also a good opportunity to talk with other people who buy art at auctions and see if they have any tips for newcomers to the auction scene.

2
Attend art auctions that are within your price range. Big-name auction houses, such as Christie’s in New York, tend to set higher prices for the work being auctioned off. If you’re working with a smaller budget, stick to smaller, regional auction houses that tend to have lower price points.

• If you live in a small or medium-sized town, you may not even know about any auction houses in your area! Try searching online for auction houses in your town and consider making your purchases there.
• Note that just because an auction house is small, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the works being auctioned off are not valuable.

3
Ask for a discount if you’re buying from a gallery for the first time. Artwork can be expensive, and the prices are very often negotiable. After you have compared values at a few art galleries, you will have a good idea what a piece is worth and can make an offer that you and the dealer will both feel is fair.

• Galleries will often reduce the price of an item for first-time buyers if they’re looking to develop a relationship with them. Don’t be afraid to ask for a lower price!
• Familiarize yourself with the dealers and ask others about them. You might learn from others who have bought art from a certain gallery that it’s relatively expensive or tacks on lots of hidden fees.

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Buy from galleries that you’ve bought art from before. There is immense value in being a valued customer. When shopping for art, nurse a rapport with gallery owners so that they will make you aware of the best values and the newest pieces coming into the gallery before other buyers.

• Gallery owners may also reward repeat customers with lower prices as part of their long-term business strategy.

5
Consider buying art online for cheaper options. The Internet has made it possible for relatively unknown artists who can’t get their works into galleries or auctions to still make their work available for purchase. If your budget is tight or you want to buy work from artists who aren’t established yet, consider making your purchase online.

• Some of the most popular sites to buy art from include Minted, Tiny Showcase, and Art.com
• Buying art online also makes it easy for you to find art of a particular style or genre. For example, Lumas.com specializes in high-quality photography, while Tappan Collective focuses entirely on art produced by emerging artists.

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Part3
Investing in Art to Make a Profit

1
Find out what the relative values of different types of art are. The first rule of investing is to buy when prices are low and wait for the value of what you buy to increase. Do background research on what types of artwork are more or less valuable at the moment and see which types are poised to grow in value.

• Note that if you buy a piece of art at a bargain price, it may be because nobody else wanted to buy it and it failed to sell at auction. You may have to wait as long as 10 years for these works of art to rise in value.
• Consider beginning your research at an art fair. Art fairs will give you a starting point so that you can narrow your gallery search down and avoid visiting ones that don't feature what you want.

2
Diversify the type of art that you invest in. Artwork in a particular genre or by a particular artist can fluctuate wildly in price, especially if it’s more contemporary in nature. For this reason, make sure you’re diversifying your investments by buying art from a variety of artworks, styles, and types.

• Don’t limit yourself to any one type of art. Be willing to invest in decorative art (e.g., porcelains) as well as fine art (e.g., paintings and sculptures).

3
Buy the highest quality art you can afford. Although much of the value of a given work of art stems from who the artist is, art of a higher quality is nearly always worth more than lower quality work. When deciding on art to invest in, opt for quality instead of quantity.

• Works of higher quality are also far more likely to appreciate in value over time, making them much better long-term investments.
• Determining which pieces of art are higher quality will require you to either acquire a working knowledge of art history and movements or hire an art “advisor” who can help you decide which pieces to invest in.

4
Purchase works by emerging artists for potentially greater profits. Works by relatively unknown or young artists tend to be cheaper and have great potential for increasing in value. Buy cheap works from up-and-coming artists if you’re looking to turn your investments into possible short-term windfalls.

• Note that this is an inherently risky endeavor, as not all art is guaranteed to increase in value. You probably shouldn’t spend all of your money on this type of art if you’re looking to invest.
• For the best results, look for art that is featured in cutting edge galleries or museum shows and that was painted by someone whose work has not been featured before.

5
Acquire art on the primary market if you’re looking to flip it. There are two types of market in the art world: primary and secondary. The primary market is for buying works that have not been previously owned (i.e., new works of art) and are thus relatively inexpensive, while the secondary market is for buying previously owned works through a gallery or auction.

• Buying art on the primary market will almost always be less expensive than buying art on the secondary market. Thus, if you’re able to resell that art to a gallery or at an auction, it usually results in a net profit for you.