DEFINING ART

Text topic: Context in Arts and Media

Text author: Милан Радовановић

There are two opposite approaches when we speak about art and status of a work of art. The first approach, according to the essentialist theory, tries to find some intrinsic property of art which it considers to be independent from social and historic influence. The existence of such essence would give to such work of art a universal and timeless transhistorical and transcultural value. The second approach starts from the premise that the status of a work of art is always a matter of convention, not essence. This view rejects the perceptual and phenomenological approach, emphasizing a whole series of contextual conditions – social, cultural and institutional – without which it is not possible to talk about the status of a work of art. Art is redefined on contextual, rather than aesthetic qualities, taking into account the historical and social context in which works of art are created, presented, interpreted and finally – consumed.