Can a car be art?
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Can an automobile be art? Yes. Art does not have to have the sole function of "art." Any man-made endeavor which transcends the sum of its parts is art and evokes an emotional response, whether it be a car, architecture, or a painting, is art. Of course, in all things artistic, it's in the eye of the beholder.
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as long as its not functional it can be coined 'art'.
strictly speaking:
as soon as you use it; it loses art status.
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How about the engine builder? He's not required to polish the top of a block, but he may, out of response to his sense of "art". A lot of parts of a car, its upholstery, rims, lights, the paint job, etc., etc. are canvases for some artist.
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Maybe this?
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@olishea said:
as long as its not functional it can be coined 'art'.
strictly speaking:
as soon as you use it; it loses art status.
How about architecture then? Only useless (non-usable) buildings can be "art"?
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ooooh!!
now you gonna start a war.
Here is my contribution..
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Of course a car can be art. In fact, wasn't the Land Rover/ Range Rover installed in the British Museum of Art as a art/design/engineering Masterpiece? It wears the queen's badge does it not? I also agree about the Doozy.
My ideas of Cars that could be considered ART
Jaguar XKE --beautiful elegant lines and curves. Defines Sexy!
1936 Hispano-suiza. . .Declared by many to be the most beautiful car ever built.
The Volkswagen Beetle --iconic This is a 1953 Split rear window.
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Again I must insist....
"a car could never be art, because for something to be art, it can have no purpose other than itself".
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That's nonsense, Pete. Why would the two things exclude each other?
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Oh . ..I picked em cuz I just thought they were beautiful . . .to me. . that's art. . .. and besides. . .
Who died and made you Robert Hughes?
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IMO anything ("man-made") that pleases the eye (ear, taste, smell...) be it useful or useless (otherwise) can be considered art.
Just look at Arts & Crafts or Art Deco - that's exactly the point they started. No-one tells me a beautiful Art Nouveau furniture cannot be considered art just because you can sit on it!
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If the question is "anything" art, then NO, not all things are art. Somethings are enclusively art, while others, that may have some function, can also be art.
1975 BMW 3.0 CSL by Alexander Calder
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Well, if I keep myself to my own definition that "anything that pleases the eye", to me at least, those BMW's are not too artistic. But then its a millennia old discussion what art is actually and whether it is always subjective or there is a kind of Platonic idea according to which there are art pieces that are definitely art even without critics stating it.
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I was hoping to avoid a "what is art" discussion, as it's proven to be a pointless debate.
However I was more looking for a what is NOT art, but I guess if the answer is "it looks pretty so it's art" then there really cannot be a debate or discussion.
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I don't think you can ask if something is art and avoid the what-is-art question.
Art is often in the eye of the beholder - what is one man's metal sculpture is another man's pile of scrap metal. -
Hi Gai, Guess you had to be there. Calder's work is like that. The first time I saw one of his stables exhibited along with some sketches, I was struck how poorly photographs conveyed their beauty. However I did post the car "sight unseen".
Don't know if art must be beautiful;
is a beautiful couple "Art"?
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@unknownuser said:
what is one man's metal sculpture is another man's pile of scrap metal.
aha, what I was hoping for
So.... if the artist intended the metal to be composed in a way to represent an art piece then it's purposed use is just that...art, and will not be used or driven, eaten or anything else as it is art and will be exhibited as art.
A car is designed and built to be driven, it's purpose is mobility, therefore it cannot strictly be art.
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INteresting. .. .ON Wait Wait Don't Tell me on Saturday, they discussed this very because a janitor in Some European Museum had apparently discarded several "Sculptures" that he took for piles of garbage on the floor that he was sure was meant to be thrown away.
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Many may then conclude that the janitor has no idea of what art is, he does not have the refinement to see art in it's glory...his rebuttal would be they do not know what trash is and he is an expert at trash as it is his career.
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Is the car going to be used for transport or parked in a gallery of some sort?
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