What is Art?

Our next meeting is on Thursday 8^th May at the normal time of 7.00pm at the White Rock Hotel

The subject this month will be:  What is Art?

This is a question that has been asked since the beginning of philosophy (and perhaps before)

There are definitions from Leon Tolstoy to Germaine Greer and many more besides. 

Is art a manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or even of God,  or should the question be dodged as the Dadaists proclaimed “art is anything done by an artist”. The human attachment to art is clear and deep, so it might be the result of some Darwinian natural selection that rewards artistic appreciation in some other survival characteristics; or could it be an accidental side effect of the thinking mechanisms of the brain?

I will look at some of the science of Art.  The golden rectangle, the fibonacci series, the Mandelbrot set, and the way the brain works. 

And then Alistair Robertson will be looking at the art of Art.  What should be included in the category of ‘Art’? And who should decide?

The following are two of the art-works that Alistair particularly spoke about.

Kazimir Malevich The Black Square
http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/malevich-black-square.html

Mark Rothko Black on Maroon
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-rothko-1875