Is it Art?

So does "Art is stuff."

[kisrael]

I dunno, "Art is what you can get away with" at least has the hope of deffering to established "experts" and recognized authorities in the way "art is stuff" doesn't....

[middlefunger]

I've always been fascinated with art that sells. I've been to art auctions before (and spent too much money sometimes...mmmmm....auctionilicious) and there has almost always been a couple of pieces that I've hated that go for way more than I would have expected. Generally, this is as a result of the piece being "investment art," that is, art that is from an up and coming painter/sculptor/whatever that will be worth lots more in the near future. The thing that has always fascinated me by these pieces is that the art seems to be in the selling of the image (of the creator) rather than the artistic process/end result. Creative whoring? I'm not sure, but I'm still impressed.

[kisrael]

There's a great Richard Feyman quote on money and art, after someone bought some drawings he made,

What I got out of that story was something still very new to me: I understood at last what art is really for, at least in certain respects. It gives somebody, individually, pleasure. You can make something that somebody likes so much that they're depressed, or they're happy, on account of that damn thing you made! In science, it's sort of general and large: You don't know the individuals who have appreciated it directly.
I understood that to sell a drawing is not to make money, but to be sure that it's in the home of someone who really wants it; someone who would feel bad if they didn't have it. This was interesting.
--Richard Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

It kind of goes against your idea of investment art, actually, but it's still a neat thought.

[Nic Name]

Click on the pic to see a gallery of new images.

[EPS]

Originally posted by datalas

What about their lives? did they go to school? strive for education, aspire to new heights, dream of experience, share the love of another, simply to be turned into something without name? Something to be gawped at, bathed in anomicity their former lives and dreams ultimately turned into a rather tasteless bit of furniture?

Yes, being under a tombstone is so much better...

[Nic Name]

Originally posted by EPS

Yes, being under a tombstone is so much better...

I think EPS was being facetious.

There is no "being" under a tombstone ... only a rotting, watersoaked, maggot ridden, decomposing corpse.

Incineration is cleaner alternative, perhaps.

I think it is quite sound thinking by these people, while alive and contemplating the future existence of their bodies, to consent to the "preservation" of their body parts for such an educational exhibit.

After living organ donation, and gifting of body parts for anatomical research, a donation of a corpse to an educational exhibit is just another way of making a contribution to humanity.

It's not for everybody, but there is nothing wrong with their choice.

[jeni]

there is not much being under a tombstone either. most people are not buried directly below tombstones! ooh! ah. ahem.

besides, when you're dead, you're dead. or so i look at it. so even if you're under a tombstone, your eyes can't see, your fingers can't feel, and your brain can't think it sucks. as for your spirit, if you have a spiritual side...then you're elsewhere anyway, right?