Articles what is art

In other words, the historical approach does not deny that the value of art is ultimately therapeutic—it assumes this, even if it tends to forget or dismiss the point.

Erudition is valuable only as a means to an end, which is to shed light on our present needs. A nother approach sees art as a succession of discoveries or innovations in the representation of reality. Leonardo da Vinci is crucial, in this view, because he was an early adopter of sfumato , an artistic technique for showing shapes without using outlines.

This is most apparent if the top half of the painting is covered. We are presented not with the illusion of three-dimensional space but with the admission that this is a two-dimensional work. The worth of an invention can be assessed externally only in terms of the genuine benefits that it brings.

Technical discussions reveal only the changes in methods of design or production. The new ways are not good in themselves; they are good only if we have reason to believe that they are better than the old. Hence the technical view of art has a buried assumption: it presupposes that the works in question are beneficial to us.

It does not explain why this should be so but, like the historical approach, takes this for granted. Technical advances are valuable insofar as they bring new, or enhanced, therapeutic resources to the art form. I f one agrees with Hegel that art is the sensuous presentation of the idea or ideal , it remains to be explained why such a presentation is valuable. What is the nature of our troubles or aspirations, such that art is something that we need?

Art can be:. A corrective of bad memory : Art makes the fruits of experience memorable and renewable. It is a mechanism to keep our best insights in good condition and make them publicly accessible.

A purveyor of hope : Art keeps pleasant and consoling things in view, fortifying us against despair. A source of dignified sorrow : Art reminds us of the legitimate place of sorrow in a good life, so that we recognize our difficulties as elements of any noble existence. A balancing agent : Art encodes with unusual clarity the essence of our good qualities; it holds them before us to help rebalance our natures and direct us to our best possibilities. A guide to self-knowledge : Art can help us identify what is central to life but difficult to put into words.

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The Socio-Epistemic Value of Art. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. What Is Art Good For? We find a pattern of responses indicative of an individual with an interest in and open enjoyment of art, and who also shows a wide interest in more complex art-induced reactions and more contemporary art examples.

In most cases, significance was also found for all main object categories. Also of note, no items among the above scales significantly correlated with liking. Again these were also not significantly correlated with liking ratings.

These factors might also be linked to rather traditional or art-naive expectations about art's quality, referring to pre-Modern examples. Looking to the breakdown between object types, we do find that significant correlations were often found for Readymade and Abstract art, whereas they were not as strong for Kitsch and Hyperrealistic i.

On the other hand, preference for more traditional art forms Classic, Kitsch, Representational, Impressionistic showed low correlation with art classifications in general or within the specific object types. However, the earlier study was only conducted with one art example which itself was of a quite unique variety installation consisting of commentary written on the museum walls.

Presumably, the present findings may coincide with a more general propensity to classify objects as art.

This held true both for the all-art composite and for all art sub-types. This suggests a willingness to seek out unfamiliar or novel encounters, and has also been shown to arise in several studies with art, correlating with, among other findings, a deeper appreciation for and engagement with the arts and creativity Kaufman, ; Myszkowski et al. Conversely, the need for cognitive closure correlated negatively with art classifications in composite and all sub-types with the exception of Kitsch.

Note also that no significant correlations were found for the personality measures and liking the art. Positive correlation was also found with the creative activities of photography and making paintings or drawings, as well as with highbrow activities related specifically to art—visiting commercial galleries, art centers, and museum. Note also that we did not find correlation with other, perhaps more classical, types of fine art such as ballet and theater.

Significance was also found for having purchased an art book, while no significant correlations were found with more lowbrow forms of leisure. Correlation with classifying objects as art: Hanquinet Social profile of tastes and interests. Parallel analysis Monte Carlo simulation, permutated datasets suggested five components.

Here we employed a Direct Oblimen rotation because this allows for either an oblique or an orthagonal solution. We expected that certain items would be reported by individuals in differing outcomes, thus this rotation was expected to provide a more natural fit for the data. It should also be noted that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure above did report a rather lowish sampling adequacy, due to the high number of included items.

Total number of components 5 selected following Parallel Analysis Monte Carlo simulation, 1, iterations. This breakdown of participants appeared to roughly coincide with the general motivations for visiting art museums above, as well as Hanquinet's previous findings using similar scales. In order to further consider the underlying question of how these individual types might predict propensity to classify objects as art, individual factor scores were computed for each factor for each participant and entered into a multiple regression forced entry with percentage of objects classified as art as the dependent variable.

Note that, despite the potential for multicolinearity with Oblimin rotated components, all Variance Inflation Factors were below. Only the first Art interested factor was a significant indicator of classification, constituting an increase in 9. Note also that the art avoider unequivocally did not show significance, suggesting in sum that classification propensity may be tied more to an interest in and an openness to differing art forms, rather than interest in culture or art itself.

Interestingly, however, no personality correlated significantly, or to even a non-significant notable degree with the Hedonic vs. Categorical scale. The aim of this study was to consider the classification of images as works of art.

Beginning with the first question: We do find evidence that viewers often did not classify objects as art. This in turn was highly dependent on the art type. Classification was further varied for almost all individuals within the different categories themselves. Even among our control Renaissance and Baroque paintings, only This finding in turn poses implications for past and future empirical art research.

Even more, in answer to question two, art classification showed a strong, significant connection to preference. Liking of images classified as art was roughly 20 points higher on the point scale than those found to be not art. While the present study cannot directly test causality, this does certainly call into question past, as well as future, studies which include appraisal or emotional response.

For example, studies which show systematic differences in appraisal, reward, or engagement with certain art types as compared to others—e. Transversely, dislike for such examples may lead to lower arthood classifications. Thus, we encourage researchers to consider this factor when composing future research. It may be pertinent to ask, either in follow-up or as a main aspect of a study, if individuals believe what they are viewing is art.

The more general connection between classification and appraisal, as well as order of such appraisals, is an important target for future systematic research.

Moving to our two additional questions, our study also provides evidence regarding who was, and why individuals were, making certain classifications, which might also be used as a base for future research. In our exploratory analyses, we find that the highest correlations to positive art classification was employing the belief that every painting or artist-made image is automatically a work of art.

This suggests a categorical motive, as reviewed in the introduction. This argument is also supported by the comparatively lower rate of classification for Readymades and Hyper realistic paintings, with viewers potentially not seeing them as artist-made objects and thus not art examples. At the same time, we also found evidence for hedonic aspects—specifically the use of beauty, technical quality, and style as means of making classifications.

However, these strategies were significant predictors for not classifying art. Interestingly, both hedonic factors and the categorical factor above, loaded onto the same general component in the PCA, suggesting that they are somewhat mutually exclusively employed by participants. Thus, while our findings tangentially coincide with Hagtvedt and Patrick's study, which also reported a complex mix of hedonic and categorical determinants, we can add the new argument here that it may be the selection of strategies that is a key element which should be considered in future assessment of participants or study results.

Interestingly, while the relation between classification and liking scores cannot definitively tell us about causality, the lower correlation between score found among participants who did use a categorical basis, and higher scores among those using hedonic factors, might tend to suggest a key difference between these groups.

This of course is a question for future research. In turn, regarding attitudes and personality, our findings paint a picture of a participant, likely to agree that objects are art, who shows classic indicators of art interest.

This includes believing art is important, being interested in and comfortable with art. Equally, such individuals also showed high openness to experience, low need for cognitive closure, and expectations that one should have a deep connection with artworks. It was also this group who showed a significant correlation with an experience-based motive for classification assessments.

Thus, we would suggest that research consider these aspects when preparing studies and assessing participants. Note also that these individuals, while feeling themselves knowledgeable about art, did not necessarily show aspects of training or expertise.

This of course may derive from our sample of lay students. However, such populations are commonly used in laboratory study. Interestingly, it also appeared that specific personalities or levels of art interest did not correlate with the propensity to use a hedonic or categorical classification basis, suggesting the complexity of this topic when attempting to further explain why individuals did not always classify images as art.

Finally, the significant connections between strategies and personality which were discovered suggest one last basis which may also be important for understanding classification. Positive predictors for classification, in addition to the categorical aspect above, involved the work's impact or the viewer's processing experience.

Individuals felt that objects which evoked thoughts or emotions, or challenged them, were more likely to be art. Interestingly, this basis has been previously identified as a means of determining art.

For example, it aligns with arguments by Dewey , that an artwork is determined by its resulting experience. In the same vein, Eaton , p. It is again not clear whether this focus on experience spoke to more of a classificatory or hedonic motive: viewers may have believed that these factors were the main categorical determinants of a work of art i.

Alternatively, viewers may have felt that art that did impact them in some way was more pleasing or good, and thus deserved to be called an artwork. This also tends to match current sociological or culturally-emergent paradigms for determining art as fulfilling certain human-centered aims.

For example, as noted by Margolis , p. Certainly, this is one more target for future systematic study. This study also comes with caveats. Although, we employed a range of art, there are still many other varieties that we did not asses and which are commonly used in present empirical research e. It would be interesting for future studies to employ an even more assessment of multiple art styles, assessing whether the same classification patterns are discovered. Based on the present paper's argument and findings, this itself would be an important step for any lab studies before using a particular art variety.

Equally, it would be interesting to consider if art experts show the same propensity for case-by-case arthood determinations Kirk et al. Due to our art selection choices and our decision to combine results into a general art classification score for the PCAs, there may have also been some bias toward certain personality types that might have favored our artwork selection and which might show different patterns if using different mixes of art.

This too could be further assessed in future research. The study, due to its exploratory character, also included a number of parallel assessments without correction. We suggest that specific relationships of interest be considered in further, controlled follow-up assessments with larger samples.

Finally, because liking and classification questions were asked in tandem we cannot make direct claims about causality. This too should be further tested. In conclusion, it does appear that typical art study viewers do not automatically assign art classification to viewed objects—even if chosen from respected art canon.

This shares a strong correlation to their preference ratings. Here, the participant is the master, with classifications that may underlie some or many current findings, and should be explicitly considered in psychological and empirical research. The study design, execution, data analysis and writing were done by MP and YC.

PM contributed to the design, execution, and writing. GG contributed to data analysis and writing. HL assisted with design and paper writing. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The Brillo Box by Andy Warhol, questioned whether art could even be detected by the eye, or whether it had to be assumed by context Danto, Danto's , p. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Front Psychol v. Front Psychol. Published online Oct 9. Markey , and Helmut Leder. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. This article was submitted to Human-Media Interaction, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Received Apr 1; Accepted Sep The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Associated Data Supplementary Materials Table1. Abstract When an individual participates in empirical studies involving the visual arts, they most often are presented with a stream of images, shown on a computer, depicting reproductions of artworks by respected artists but which are often not known to the viewer.

Keywords: art classification, empirical aesthetics, art appraisal, liking judgments, personality, empirical methods. A brief review: art or not art—why is our classification important? Present study The present study was designed to test individuals' classification of objects as art or not art, based on the above preliminary findings, by more systematically assessing a variety of art images, and including a range of personality characteristics, as well as motivating factors to consider the different reasons individuals may or may not see art.

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