Art Appreciation Research Paper

Throughout this course I have gained more of an appreciation for artwork and the artists that create them. I have also gained an appreciation for the people that try to define what art is in general or more specifically what makes good art. We have read great thinkers and their philosophies on this, and the fact that even people of such great intelligence can disagree on the subject proves how challenging it can be. By reading the opinions of these great thinkers, and by discussing their thought with our class, I feel I am in a much better place as to define what makes good art myself. I define art as anything created by someone that inspires another to appreciation. This is a very broad definition, but it is so on purpose. I think …show more content…
I do not have a concrete number that must appreciate a work for it to be considered great, but it has to be a substantial amount, probably at least in the thousands if not more. I feel like a lot of people would protest this through multiple arguments. The first would be that perhaps the average person does not have a good taste for art, and therefore a piece should not be reliant on many people appreciating it. I would disagree with the idea that regular people’s opinions should not be considered when judging art. I think that although there can be people that are professional critics that may have a deeper feeling for art, a piece must be able to transcend into the realm of nonprofessional critics enjoying it for it to be considered great. I think that this would be in conflict with Bell again, who thinks that a person must be a knowledgeable critic in order to able to accurately call a piece of art great. I think that a person can be a better critic by being knowledgeable, particularly in the area of judging the skill of a piece of art, and I also agree with Bell that a person can develop a more acute sense of emotion from art, but I still think that a piece of art must transcend beyond just these learned critics and inspire a large amount of people, rather they be professional critics or not. Another …show more content…
These great works of art can be a universal language that allows even people from different time periods and cultures to get a look at what is inside us all. I agree with Schopenhauer that art connects us all to the by imitating what he calls “the will” or what I would term as that in nature in which we all come from. I also agree with Schopenhauer that music has a special place for me in the world of art, and can stir powerful emotions in people that other forms of art have a difficult time doing. I will admit though that this may be a result of me knowing more about music than other forms of art, but it does seem that this may be the case for most people. The celebration and understanding of these emotions would be exactly opposite of what Plato would suggest. Plato felt that art could be dangerous for the very reason that it could make people experience emotions that he felt would not be beneficial to society, such as mourning a loved one. I think that these emotions are extremely important to recognize and shows the base humanity in us and connects us