Art can be anything even urinals or bricks. i’m am however going to be writing about two very different points of view one classic formalism, the other conceptual.

Conceptual art has it roots in the French artist Marcel Duchamp who in 1917 created the work the fountain. Which was a urinal with his signature on it. The work was not very well accepted at the time with many people using the work for its original purpose.

This however paved the way for today’s conceptual artists. Even though it wasn’t until 1953 that the next notable conceptual artwork would be created.

The work was by Robert Rauschenberg and was called Erased De Kooning Drawing. Which was a drawing by Willem de Kooning which Rauschenberg erased. The art was in essence the act of erasing the art. The idea of this from of expression was and is to question what we perceive as art.

Formalism is really just the classic way of seeing art and the complete opposite of conceptual art, creating things exactly as they appear. While not all his works would exactly fit the formalism criteria. A good example of this style can be found in some our own artist John Luce Lockett’s Paintings.

While of course different styles of art existed this way of creating was the norm. Before art exploded into a vast amount of different forms of expression that it is today.

Some concepts created by conceptual artists (or their gallery/dealer)  i do really enjoy. But I don’t feel as if this becoming one of the more common art forms would necessarily be a good thing.

That being said, i think the most important thing in judging an artwork is: whether or not it invokes an emotion, be it joy, inspiration, anger or despair as long as it doesn’t leave you cold.

The artist often tries to recreate the beauty and chaos of the natural world.  Some artists such as Tony Cragg find this approximation by constructing their work in the same manner as living systems are created. He achieves his unique style by first creating a frame with interlocking parts similar to that of a skeleton, afterwhich he adds the outer layer like skin.

The outer layer wraps the frame and creates believable beautiful natural forms.

Cragg is an example of perfectly planned natural design.

on the other end of the spectrum are artists like Jackson Pollock whose drip paintings, perfectly fractal in design, tap into the constìant and universal patterns we encounter in every corner of nature.

Drip painting By Jackson Pollock