What is Fine Art?

What this means is that there is (in the artists point of view) a lesser value to the end results and more value giving to the thoughts and emotion (context) experienced in the process of creating.

You will see this more clearly in contemporary art, where some of the work might be simple, something the viewer could have made.

Like the above piece by David Shrigley for example, you would think that is made very simply and would be easy to reproduce. Yet you won’t be able to reproduce the thoughts and feelings that he experienced while producing this art work.

Mounted on a length of narrow steel rod supported by a splayed tripod of three narrow steel legs, Stop It presents a hand-made copy of the ubiquitous road sign ‘STOP’. Like the traditional sign that it imitates, Shrigley’s version is made of white lettering on a red octagon with a narrow border of white around the edges. However, below the word ‘STOP’, the artist has added the word ‘IT’ in smaller script, completely changing the tone of the command. The reduction in the scale of the letters ‘it’ means that the second line is not immediately readable and from a distance the sculpture appears merely a quirky artist’s version of the sign. However, once the second word becomes visible, the sign’s neutral authority is reduced to an absurd and unexpectedly personal level. The command ‘stop it’ is one normally only made to a member of one’s intimate circle – a family member, a partner, lover or, in an extreme situation, possibly a friend, and so the words immediately give the sculpture a personal voice. Referring to his use of text in his work, Shrigley has commented:

I like the fact that you can take a tiny piece of conversation, or the way somebody describes something, and use it as a quote. It can seem somehow absurd or profound whereas within the context in which it was said, it was probably just a normal piece of communication. I like the fact that you’re always guessing at the context in which it was played.

(Quoted in mono.kultur, p.16.)

Unlike the installation and sculpture pieces, the contemporary paintings that are being made are a little harder to produce.

Abstraction is ever popular, and is a skill learned by practice and being in touch with your emotions and concepts. It is a part of fine art that seems to convey what fine art is, it is imaginative, has an aesthetic, and emanates intellectual content though a not easily deciphered one. With abstraction it is hard to guess, unless told, what the piece is about.