What is fine art

[tomrit]

I see that folks are confusing commercial art, and fine art.

Commercial art is easy, it is done to make money (those Elvis paintings mentioned).

Fine art is harder to define. I usually consider it "good" or "valuable" art. It is mostly done to please the artist, although others may appreciate it also, rather than the public. (See, I told you I might have another definition on another day)

I still say "art" is produced by the intention of the artist. Your three year old with his finger paints is producing art because his intent is to make a nice picture. How good the art is, is where all those qualifiers come in.

To give an idea of where I am coming from; if I make a drawing to see if something I want to make is going to work, that is not art. But if I do a drawing to hang on the wall that is art, even though my mechanical drawings are far better quality than my sketches.

Of course that can get fuzzy, my doctor's office has a framed blue print of the Mackinaw bridge hanging on the wall, so apparently he, or his decorator, considers it art. And of course there is nothing that says an artist can now do mechanical drawing intending them to be art. Like I say, fuzzy.

I once had an artist friend say, "If it is a painting it is art, if it is framed it is fine art". So there is yet another definition.

[apaflo]

Originally Posted by tomrit

Fine art is harder to define. I usually consider it "good" or "valuable" art.

I just can't see that "good" or "valuable" has any connection the term "fine art". Some fine art works have virtually no value, and even the ones that do have great value are usually considered other than good by at least somebody. Look at all the comments on photography forums, including here, about Cindy Sherman and Andreas Gursky! Never mind some flake that is going to school working on a MFA degree...

[corlib]

Tom; I think you may have just threw in a new curve. The mechanical drawing may have been put in by a decorator. So is that just a decoration and another category to be considered?

[aam1234]

Originally Posted by tomrit

I once had an artist friend say, "If it is a painting it is art, if it is framed it is fine art".

Very cool definition

[KA_Style]

"Fine art" can be anything IMO, its in the eye of the beholder..


As my F up trigger happy finger took this before I was focused playing with macro mode.. Now added to my "fine" art for sale collection. Total screw up but I love it. A little desaturation and grain and here we are.

[stef@apl]

Originally Posted by KA_Style

As my F up trigger happy finger took this before I was focused playing with macro mode.. Now added to my "fine" art for sale collection. Total screw up but I love it. A little desaturation and grain and here we are.

I love it!

One out of focus picture is a mistake. 20 oof pictures is a style.

(someone on this board said that!)

[pellepiano]

My view is tha anything with the word art in it is misleading as it does not mean anything specific.

A painting, statue, or photograph are specific things most people know what they are.
But then some people want to elevate their work , to make it be more than just what it is, and then they can call it art. It does not change anything though, other than possibly , peoples perception of your work , before you show it to them.

If you only know you are going to an art exhibition, you have no idea what you are going to see. It could be photos, a goat with a tire around its neck or some early work of Rembrandt. So it would be better to say an exhibition with Leibowitz photos, Robert Rauschenberg work or Seurats impressionist paintings.

Excuse the strange english.

[apaflo]

Originally Posted by pellepiano

My view is tha anything with the word art in it is misleading as it does not mean anything specific.

It is true that it does not specify a specific object, but it does have a very specific meaning. And most of the comments here indicate a poor understanding of not just that meaning, but how a language works!

First, "art" and "fine art" are the same thing. There is no distinction. "Art" is just a short synonym for "fine art" when used to mean something is the product of human creativity.

What is confusing though is that the 'art' in "fine art" is not the same meaning as the term art used as a synonym for "fine art"! Which is to say the phrase "fine art" is not the adjective "fine" applied to "art". (I can't help it, my apologies for this: "Fine art" is not an artful turn of phrase, but rather a term of art.) It does not indicate one work is good enough, or fine enough, to be referenced with that term. All art is fine art.

Here's the context of the term "fine art". Unless used in this context, it is not correct usage!

• mechanical arts,
• industrial arts,
• fine arts,
• liberal arts,
• black arts

Hence a bit of "fine art" is anything we would call a "work of art" in the sense that it is a product of human creativity. Specifically it is what relates to using imagination/taste/creativity to produce something of beauty. That is as opposed to something defined as a trade (the industrial arts) or things like the study/use of language, arithmetic, logic, science, history etc (the liberal arts), or the black arts defined as anything magic.

[KA_Style]

Originally Posted by stef@apl

I love it!

One out of focus picture is a mistake. 20 oof pictures is a style.

(someone on this board said that!)

Thank you!

Ha ha right..a style!

[gryphonslair99]

This defines it perfectly.