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Originally Posted by This Is Not Here
Don't knock it, it's a way of life (Albeit a futile one). I'm half way through a degree in Fine Art now, and I've got to mention here that rarely, if at all, has the question "is it art?" come up. I have no memory of posing or being posed that question. Mainly I think because the "is it art?" question is just a massive cop-out on behalf of the viewer.
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I half agree with you on that. I agree that within art education the question 'what is art?' has been largely abandoned. I'm not sure if that's such a good thing though. Someone applies to study art at an art school so it obviously means
something. If that same person were to turn up at an art school and then have to write essays about quantum physics for three years they'd be justified in saying that what they're studying "isn't art". They should therefore be encouraged to look at what art actually
is. The fact that there's no single answer to that question shouldn't mean that it's avoided as a question altogether. When Duchamp created R. Mutt he had a clear enough understanding of what art was meant to be on an establishment level at that time in order to oppose it. My fear is that many contemporary artists have little awareness of the various discourses surrounding 'what art is' now and, as such, are prevented from making conscious moves either to reinforce those ideas or oppose them.