It's interesting how people's feelings sometimes get in the way of having an excellent discussion. This article , by a very conservative columnist, addressed the ongoing Wordcraft question of "what is art." We don't seem to be able to delve into it because feelings get in the way. However, here there are no discussants, so I can reflect for a moment. George Will, in the article cited, says: Under the last Democratic administration, the NEA said art is ... almost everything. The NEA democratically decreed that "art includes the expressive behaviors of ordinary people," including "dinner-table arrangements." The head of the National Endowment for the Humanities believed, "Today the lives of ordinary American people have assumed a place beside volumes of European classics in the humanities."
According to some, art is in the eyes of the beholder. I surely can see how a floral arrangement could be considered art. It is art to me. Art is present in "ordinary" life. Yet, there is a difference from the gorgeous deep purple gladiola arrangement in my family room, and a Monet. I think the question isn't what is art, but instead the relative significance (?) of art (fair, good, etc.). Yet, that's all subjective, too. Some don't even like Monet, for example.
Here is my favorite. I so love the National Gallery of Art, and I haven't been there for a few years now.
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