WHAT IS ART // ARCHITECTURE

The answer to the question; ‘What makes something art?’ has been an ongoing discussion since the beginning of time, the answer everchanging. According to Plato, art was an imitation of nature. Centuries later, however, artists stopped literally painting and sculpting their surroundings.

The artwork became more abstract, and with that also the meaning and definition of art itself. Nowadays, art is defined by the dictionary as: ‘the use of the imagination to express ideas or feelings, particularly in painting, drawing or sculpture.’ You would think that this means that the artists always really think their pieces through, that there is always a deeper meaning.

If you, however, would take a look at Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, this statement is immediately thrown out of the window. His work almost ridicules the meaning of art of the time and states that something becomes art as soon as it is exhibited in a museum. However, if art is something subjective, a thing which everyone attaches their own value to, a few art critics should not be the ones to decide if a piece should be labelled as art or not.

To see if the same indefinite answer also applies to architecture, maybe we should ask ourselves the similar question; ‘What is architecture.’ While artists work from the real to the abstract, architects work the other way around. According to the dictionary, architecture is defined as: ‘the art and study of designing buildings.’ Yet not every building that has been made can be defined as architecture. Things that define architecture are not only the buildings on their own. It also includes the response the building has on its context, on its use of sustainable elements, on the way the project will be used or on its construction.

For example, some architects would not describe the typical ‘70’s terraced house as architecture. This is because thousands of them have been mass-produced and have been placed all over the world, without taking the building’s individual context to mind, creating the same mood and image in different places. Every architectural city plan should set a different mood for its habitants and visitors. While some reflect chaos, other reflect an almost military order, and while some are set in straight, strict grids, others roam free. They represent different people, societies, values, and desires from certain points in our history and create a matching living space for everybody.

Why is architecture so important to us as human beings, you may ask. It seems like it is just the place you live in, some sort of box, creating safety for yourself and your belongings. However, it is so much more than that. It is like an expression of the human civilisation and ideals of an era. Architecture is something permanent, something that endures and outlives us. The architecture of our era is something that future generations will remember us by, of which they will base on how we lived and who we were, just like we do now with the architecture from the generations who lived before us.

At the end of the day, the definition of architecture is, just like it is with art, undefined and everchanging. This however, is not necessarily a bad thing. Because of the continuous struggle to comprehend the meaning of architecture, architects tend to stay true to their ideas and concepts, instead of reforming them into something society would think of as ‘correct.’//

SOURCES 1 All About Architecture. (2018, 31 juli). WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE? Geraadpleegd van https://medium.com/ 2 Herman, J. (2014, 27 juni). 27 Responses to the Question “What is Art?” Geraadpleegd van https://www.mentalfloss.com 3 Marder, L. (2019, 26 juli). Is It Even Possible to Define What Art Is, Exactly? Geraadpleegd van https://www.thoughtco.com 4 Oxford university press. (z.d.). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries | Find definitions, translations, and grammar explanations at Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Geraadpleegd van https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ 5 Philosophy Now. (z.d.). What is Art? and/or What is Beauty? | Issue 108. Geraadpleegd van https://philosophynow.org/ 6 Quintal, B. (2019, 12 januari). 121 Definitions of Architecture. Geraadpleegd van https://www.archdaily.com 7 RAIC. (z.d.). What is Architecture | Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Geraadpleegd van https://raic.org/raic/what-architecture

Source: Saul Leiter from his book Early Black and White

Source: Saul Leiter from his book Early Color