What is Art
The dictionary definition of art is clean cut and simple: the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. However, art is more than a noun. It has the rare ability to affect masses of people or define a generation or decade. Art is more than something of more than ordinary significance; it is rather anything tangible or documented that is created with the intention of self-expression, social criticism, or evoking emotion from an audience. Though audience plays a large part in the effects art has on the world, an audience is never necessary for an object to be considered a work of art. Art is full of life and complexity, self-expression and social criticism, and it is a universal language. Many works of art are products of self-expression that show the artist’s deep emotions. It can be argued that many beautiful pieces of art were simply intended to be beautiful, but the beauty lies in the amount of emotion that is hidden between the lines. Red Canna by Georgia O’Keefe could be viewed as a woman simply mashing together many beautiful shades of red and orange. But there is undoubtedly lies an overwhelming sense of self-expression.