Is This Art?

[Miriel]

It's not art, in or out of context. Out of context it's simply a urinal. In context, it's a statement about art. But no, in my opinion that urinal itself is not a work of art.

All art is a statement about art (amongst other things).

- Rennaisance art was a response and a statement about Medeival art.
Rennaisance rejected the primitive, uneducated art of its predeccesor. It looked for truth because it accused its brother of lieing.

-Non-Secular art was a response and a statement about Rennaisance art.
Non-secular art (landscape painting, flowers, still life) rejected the religious content of Rennaisance art the sales of indulgences. It also rejected the Rennaisance art as being too upper class and allowed itself to be consumed by a growing merchant-middle class.

-Baroque art was a response and a statement about Non-Secular Art.
Baroque art accused secular art of being against God, of catering to earthly whims and desires and employed theatrical means and moving light to insight passion back into the congress that had been tempted by the Non-Secular art. Art should only exist in a church because God is the only work of Art.

-Rococco was a response and statement about Baroque, Non-Secular and Rennaisace
-Romanticism was a response and a statement about Rococco and Baroque
-Impressionism was a statement and response to Romanticism
-Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Avant Garde, Fauve, Expressionism, Abstraction, Abstract Expressionism, Conceptualism, Post-Modernism... each and all have been statements and responses about the condition under which we accept and define art.

I never ever said that art can't make a statement. I think that most GOOD art, is the kind of art that does have some sort of meaning outside just the aesthetic value of the piece. But the toilet was ONLY a statement. It wasn't a inspired piece of sculpture or a painting, or even a photograph. It was simply a toilet, and it was simply a statement. I find nothing artistic about the toilet, although I hear the statement loud and clear.

I am a Fine Arts student btw. And of course, all this is just my opinion. I qualify art a lot differently than some of my art professors. I've had a photography professor who has claimed that some of my photography work didn't qualify as art because it wasn't dark and painful enough. And according to her, art can only be something that was inspired by hurt or pain. Screw her, I say! But yeah, I don't think that toilet is art, and nothing can convince me otherwise.