Can a car be art?
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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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OK, lets follow that line of reasoning, is the painted surface on the BMW, art? Eh.. assuming you find it beautiful;-) or not:-( Or, is this too much like what is art??
Can you separate the painted surface from the car?
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OK I get it, for this post, it must be non functional. Don't know what to say; then art is "anything you can get away with"? Getting displayed in a Gallery.
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How about this....
The janitor collects pieces of metal from around the room and stacks it into a pile in order to remove them (throw away), he decides to have lunch first before removing the scrap. While he is out an 'enlightened' person enters the room and notices the pile of scrap an sees it as art.
Is it art?
The car manufacturer built the car to look impressive, built it to appeal to ones sense of what he believes attractive is, but primarily he built it to be driven, he did not intend it to be art, he intended it to be a car.
It is not art.
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Tracy Emin famously displayed her 'Slept In' bed to cries of... 'it's only a bed'. But yet the bed had function? She decided to exhibit the bed. Therefore the artist dictates what is art. If tomorrow I design a new car. Then build it. Then drive it. Then no longer use it except as a piece to admire in my garage. Is it now art?
Can art stop and start on a artists whim?
Piece of junk or metal sculpture?
When early man painted in caves did he consider it art? When Da Vinci designed Helicopters, Submarines etc. but not build them, was that an artist at work or an engineer without materials?
If a bed can be art then so can a car, but the grey area where art starts is whole other debate.
The janitor accidentally makes a work of art, why can't the car designer?
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So instead of flushing it, you mount it and call it art. This is Art, because it was pooped with the intention of being displayed?
I know, it's a crap example.
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I am torn on this one. I have heard many times "rolling art" when speaking of a automobile. I am of the thinking that art depends on ones definition. Each person has their own definition and mine is some automobiles can be art.
Working for a auto manufacturer and seeing concept sketch move forward to a real vehicle it tells me that the "sketcher" is not sketching for function first. He sketches an "idea" and his interpretation of it. They sketch (alot) of different "designs". Many go nowhere, only some do, but in the sketching phase it is art and talked about it like that. They speak of "line" and "curves" not of function first. So.....is the "sketch" art? or a diagram or build print?Scott
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Solo, you yourself stated the Duesenburg automobile is art, but it has a function, can be useful - if it still runs, can still be used for it's intended purpose.
Sadly, there are some people who, yes, would consider Suri Cruise's gilded poop as art.
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actually it can become a canvass.
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@unknownuser said:
Solo, you yourself stated the Duesenburg automobile is art, but it has a function, can be useful - if it still runs, can still be used for it's intended purpose.
I believe the Duesenberg is now art, as it's function is purely for admiration and exhibition, it was not originally designed as art, nor intended, similar to da Vinci's 'helicopter' drawings was not intended as art but as a technical diagram, which now has no function for build but exists in a museum of sorts as a piece of art.
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@unknownuser said:
actually it can become a canvass.
Ah, but the bus is not art, the art on it is art, therefore the bus is the gallery on which the art is displayed.
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Off course a car can be art. To me that is evident.
It all depends on how and in which circumstances it is presented and what the artist wants to evoke with it.An example to illustrate: the 'urinoir' of Marcel Duchamps (early 20th century Dadaism):
On its own, a urinoir is a simple useful object, but placed in an extraordinary situation, it can evoke the surrealism of 'banality'.
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