As stated previously, the definition of Art has changed linguistically over the course of history. However, many things that are labeled “fine arts” today, just seem to be people who lack the skill to do something masterfully, and want to make themselves look like the more skilled person in the end. Hence, they tend to argue things like “expression”, “intellectualism”, and produce pseudo-intellectual fallacies to make themselves superior.
Art before the mid to late 19th century was always about the subject, and usually about patrons/etc. It was a skillful, crafstmans trade, one that could include entrepeneurship, and was a primary source of entertainment or social power. This is the actual definition of art, the original definition of art, and those who deny it, do it only because they fear they lack the skill to acquire such mastery.
I often laugh when I hear many “modern artists” who produce “fine art” as they call it today, and use people like Dali, Picasso, and Kandinsky to defend their freedom of expression. These three artists, and many more who started the modern “fine” art movement would be ashamed of these people. All three of them, and many more of their time, had a firm grasp of more classical skills, that allowed them to produce realistically lifelike drawings. They also believed that in order to produce the so called fine “modern art” you must first be able to realistically create artwork first, before you had the right to create new odd concepts. People of today who create “fine art” and lack the ability to do any sort of realism, Picasso/Dali/Kandinsky et al. would shun, tell them they are wannabe artists, and to get lost.
Picasso himself, often the most used for defense in today’s art world, never believed that one should have to explain themself. He would often tell viewers, to look at the paintings, and find the expression within the art, not the other way around. Only on a very very select few paintings did he ever try to explain himself.
This is exactly the problem with the term “fine art.” Never was art about expression, before the last 1-2 centuries. Cavemen did not put those simple drawings on walls to express themselves, rather to record their history. They did not have skills such as linear perspective, and other more advanced techniques hence the reason it was not so good.
Now, some fine artists follow suit with the traditional artworks. They create aesthetically pleasing images, that usually indicate some sort of illustration or realism. However, today, most of these artists are rare. Fine artists of today, tend to lean toward modern art styles, and simply lack the ability to create certain works of art. There is no craftsmanship involved, they merely try to express themselves, until finally they figure its good and now its time to explain that “expression” (cough BS cough) to the community.
People who create what “fine artists” call “commercial art” tend to have much much more skill and craft than most “fine artists.” Many commercial artists have the ability to manipulate things in such a way, that they can produce some basic premise of realism if asked to do so. Animators, illustrators, digital, 3d, you name it. Many of the artists on websites like this one, are the ones who would actually make historically famed artists proud. They have a craft, and knowledge to make aesthetically pleasing images.
Perhaps many computer-generated images or handdrawn sketches/illustrations today will never be called as great as famed paintings and sculpture, however these are what real artwork is all about. They have a craft, a purpose, and the person behind the image has skill. Some even make the works symbolic, and have a deeper meaning, even if that comes in teh form of sci-fi or fantasy. It does not matter. Most of the people who produce “commercial art” as fine artists call it, are the true artists of todays. The people who usually label themselves “fine artists”(except for a small portion of that group) are not artists, they are people who think they deserve a title, that they simply lack a craft for.
I also have respect for people who create what you might call 3d surrealist work. The 3d, when animated, or given effects with the right camera placement, tends to produce well crafted, visually appealing imagery that gives a sense of illusion. Objects merge, blend and bend in ways that are always shown more effectively when given that more realistic sense of lighting, color bleeding, et al.
The “fine artists” can keep their followers and so called “expressive intellectualism.” However when it comes to the broader definition of art, such as what is art? those so called “fine artists” don’t even deserve so much as mild consideration. I’ll take the Renaissance arts, the Illustrations and 2d digital/3d art, and the Escher-like creations of today over any other “so called art” any day.
