Idea Essay #2: What is Art?

This is a clip from the movie Mona Lisa Smile. For those of you who haven't seen the film, it's set in 1953 and is about an graduate student from California (Julia Roberts) who takes a job as the art history professor at Wellesley College, a highly conservative women's college in Massachusetts. The movie explores ideas regarding the role of women in society as well as the concept "What is art?" This clip is of the second class Ms. Watson taught at Wellesley. In the previous class, all the girls knew every piece of art and it's history, and had already read their entire text. In this class, however, Ms. Watson begins to challenge their concept of art. When she shows the Soutine painting the girls are shocked because they have never before been presented this idea of art. Betty (Kirsten Dunst) objects to this as art because it doesn't subscribe to the "standards" of art like color and form, essentially a formalist argument. Another character, Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) claims that the painting is aggressive and erotic. The arguments of many of the philosophers of art are buried in the dialogue of this scene. It explores the very idea that we have been talking about all semester: What is art? This is one of those questions which will never be fully answered. In this movie it is argued that art is not up to the standards of the infamous "them". The standards of art are determined by each individual and what their values are. To some, their child's painting is the greatest work of art in the world. To others, no artists can live up to the great Michelangelo or DaVinci. Some just want their art to be pretty and consider paintings like the Soutine "grotesque". But as Connie (Ginniger Goodwin) says, "Is there a rule against art being grotesque?" Throughout history, different generations have had different standards for the art of their time. But for me art is a personal experience. Part of it is about the composition, the colors, the form. But if it doesn't spark any thought, any emotion, it doesn't hold much meaning for me. It can still be art in the technical sense, but real art for me is art which I can look at time and time again and still connect to. I can learn something from it, it can influence my emotions, or sometimes it can just make me smile. Art can't just be paint on a canvas. It's something deeper, more meaningful, and it's not up to a textbook or elite few to tell us what good art has to be. If you love tacky velvet paintings, well then that's art for you. Most people may not share that opinion but why does that matter? Art is a personal experience, and while it can be influenced by standards, it's ultimately up to the individual to look past the paint.