Art Is Art Is Art Is Art

By Peter Lloyd

The New York Times Magazine crossword puzzle “You’ll Know It When You See It” by Don Schoenholz asks the age-old question, What is art? The puzzle solution provides six definitions from a list of notable writers, philosophers, and statesmen. Each man offers his own unique dimension to the elusive answer.

John F. Kennedy

Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color.

William Butler Yeats

Art is but a vision of reality.

André Georges Malraux

Art is a revolt against fate.

Ludwig van Beethoven

The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse—it will not submit to the mold of flattery.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Art is the proper task of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

So What Is Art?
If the eminent group above fails to agree, then certainly the question remains a question. Even if I put all their attempts together—a jealous, democratic vision, both selfish and perverse, that revolts against fate yet gives life meaning—nah!

Thanks to humorist Deb Amlen’s WordPlay blog post You’ll Know It When You See It, we also have this wonderfully artful discussion of the subject from Creature Comforts.

Now we know that art can be anything. Anything can be art. Which means nothing at all. So I give the final word to Grandma Moses.

If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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