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Arts – Impossible to define?
Arts is such a broad topic that it would be impossible to go with just a single definition. According to one of the definitions arts can be defined as: ”Studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills); college of arts and sciences’”. According to another definition: ”he arts include the visual arts, literature (written and oral), music, and theater arts.” Another way to try to define ”arts” would be to say that arts are anything that stems from human’s creative side.
Any body of work that expresses feelings, symbolizes certain emotions such as love or hate or jealousy, as well as works that show something that would be impossible to express through mathematical formulas or originated in a beaker could be considered a part of arts, as well. Art itself is sometimes described as object(s) of work that can be found in institutions associated with arts such as museums, galleries, theatres, dance stage… libraries. Many people (artists) believe their creative side comes from something that can’t be explained – it disputes logic and it seems to have no reason for its existence – creative skills are rarely a consequence of a genetic makeup or a reason of educational training. The facts are simple: you can teach some people to draw or pound out piano keys to imitate art but you can’t teach anybody talent. Talent is perhaps what separates skill from actual art but lots of people will argue that it is impossible to define talent as well, and that someone may have talent but won’t act upon it in a way that would take full advantage of such gift. There’s one interesting definition of artistic ability, that sums it up interestingly: ”[Talent] is an ability expressed by the Metaconscious mind, comprising mastery by the Self. With further study and practice, this ability becomes anchored in the Superconscious mind, where it can directly express the ensouling entity. This deeper development of ability is referred to as a gift, genius, a spiritual power or siddhi.” Even though this definition is not necessarily relevant or understand to a majority of people, there’s something to it, namely, its puzzling explanation in itself captures quite well what talent is and what purpose (or no purpose?) it serves as the essence of arts. But going back to the concept of arts itself and the impossibility to pinpoint exactly what that concept means: it is perhaps a little like what lots of people refer to as ”subconscious” – it comes from somewhere within ourselves but perhaps from outside of ourselves – we don’t really understand well what it means. So here’s what we know for sure: There’s no common agreement about arts mean exactly. A one successful argument, however, says that arts communicate on different levels and are open to a number of interpretations. If a person remembers a particular work of art – be it a book, a dance, a painting, a musical piece – and returns – in their mind or otherwise – to it frequently, than that same work of art may communicate varied ways of its meaning, endlessly. It has served its purpose whatever that purpose was. Great art pieces are said to be able to communicate with people across different cultures and be able to stand the test of time, which is could be the ultimate test for any of the arts and their (mystical?) purpose.

Dictionary.com

Art:
–noun

1.	the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

2.	the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.

3.	a field, genre, or category of art: Dance is an art.

4.	the fine arts collectively, often excluding architecture: art and architecture.

5.	any field using the skills or techniques of art: advertising art; industrial art.

6.	(in printed matter) illustrative or decorative material: Is there any art with the copy for this story?

7.	the principles or methods governing any craft or branch of learning: the art of baking; the art of selling.

8.	the craft or trade using these principles or methods.

9.	skill in conducting any human activity: a master at the art of conversation.

10.	a branch of learning or university study, esp. one of the fine arts or the humanities, as music, philosophy, or literature.

11.	arts, a. (used with a singular verb) the humanities: a college of arts and sciences. b. (used with a plural verb) liberal arts.

12.	skilled workmanship, execution, or agency, as distinguished from nature.

13.	trickery; cunning: glib and devious art.

14.	studied action; artificiality in behavior.

15.	an artifice or artful device: the innumerable arts and wiles of politics.

16.	Archaic. science, learning, or scholarship.

n.

1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
2. 1. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
   2. The study of these activities.
   3. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
   4. A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
   5. A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
   6. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
   7. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
   8. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   9. Artful contrivance; cunning.
3. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.
4. A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
5. A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
6. 1. A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
   2. A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
   3. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
   4. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
   5. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   6. Artful contrivance; cunning.
7. 1. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
   2. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
   3. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   4. Artful contrivance; cunning.
8. 1. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   2. Artful contrivance; cunning.
9. Printing Illustrative material.

Art

Art\ ([aum]rt), n. [F. art, L. ars, artis, orig., skill in joining or fitting; prob. akin to E. arm, aristocrat, article.]
1. The employment of means to accomplish some desired end; the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life; the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes. Blest with each grace of nature and of art. --Pope.
2. A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigation. Science is systematized knowledge . . . Art is knowledge made efficient by skill. --J. F. Genung.
3. The systematic application of knowledge or skill in effecting a desired result. Also, an occupation or business requiring such knowledge or skill. The fishermen can't employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea. --Addison.
4. The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts; as, he prefers art to literature.
5. pl. Those branches of learning which are taught in the academical course of colleges; as, master of arts. In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts. --Pope. Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation. --Goldsmith.
6. Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters. [Archaic] So vast is art, so narrow human wit. --Pope.
7. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage.
8. Skillful plan; device. They employed every art to soothe . . . the discontented warriors. --Macaulay.
9. Cunning; artifice; craft. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. --Shak. Animals practice art when opposed to their superiors in strength. --Crabb.
10. The black art; magic. [Obs.] --Shak.

Note: The arts are divided into various classes.
The useful, mechanical, or industrial arts are those in which the hands and body are more concerned than the mind; as in making clothes and utensils. These are called trades.
The fine arts are those which have primarily to do with imagination and taste, and are applied to the production of what is beautiful. They include poetry, music, painting, engraving, sculpture, and architecture; but the term is often confined to painting, sculpture, and architecture.
The liberal arts (artes liberales, the higher arts, which, among the Romans, only freemen were permitted to pursue) were, in the Middle Ages, these seven branches of learning, -- grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In modern times the liberal arts include the sciences, philosophy, history, etc., which compose the course of academical or collegiate education. Hence, degrees in the arts; master and bachelor of arts.
In America, literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity. --Irving.
Syn: Science; literature; aptitude; readiness; skill; dexterity; adroitness; contrivance; profession; business; trade; calling; cunning; artifice; duplicity. See Science.

Hong Kong billionaire buys Andy Warhol's Mao

Hong Kong billionaire buys Andy Warhol's Mao

A Hong Kong real estate tycoon named Joseph Lau (刘銮雄) bought Andy Warhol's portrait of Mao Zedong for 17.4 million dollars at an auction in New York. From an AFP report:

Self-made billionaire Joseph Lau, who holds a majority stake in Chinese Estates Holdings, was named by Christie's as the buyer of "Mao", a 1972 work featuring the late Chinese leader in familiar pose against a pale blue background.

The flamboyant playboy socialite, 54, has a fortune estimated by Forbes this year of 1.7 billion US dollars.

Xinhua has not reported the sale. However Mop.com has published a summary of a report in Chinese language Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao (大公报) about the sale, together with a photo of the art work (screenshot above). The report is credited to China News (中国新闻社 or 中新社), the state-owned little brother to Xinhua News Agency.

Ta Kung Pao (formerly L'Impartial) is a Hong Kong newspaper that has been published for more 100 years. Since 1949, the PRC government has funded it.

Links and Sources

• AFP report on Yahoo: Hong Kong billionaire pays record price for Warhol's Mao
• Mop.com (Chinese): Hong Kong real estate tycoon buys Mao portrait for 130 million HK dollars
• China News: English website, Chinese website

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol
American, 1930-1987
Mao, 1973 Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 448.3 x 346.7 cm Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Prize Fund, and Wilson L. Mead Fund, 1974.230

For Andy Warhol, the most influential of the Pop artists, the direct application of pigment to canvas was outmoded and limiting. Early in his career, he began to utilize the silkscreen process to transfer photographed images to canvas. Warhol used this process throughout the 1960s to reproduce multiple portraits of celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Jacqueline Kennedy. At the same time, he duplicated images of mass-produced commercial products, such as Campbell's soup cans and Brillo boxes, suggesting that the media marketed celebrities just like products.

Mao is one of a series of silkscreened portraits of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) that Warhol produced in 1973. Nearly 15 feet tall, this towering image mirrors representations that were displayed throughout China during and after the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Warhol was undoubtedly drawn to this subject because of the media’s attention to the opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s. His irreverent attitude toward China’s totalitarian propaganda is apparent on the surface of the painting. Flamboyant brushstrokes compete with the photographic image, forming color splashes on Mao’s clothing. Red rouge and blue eye shadow resemble graffiti. These details can be interpreted as commentary on the resemblance of Communist propaganda to capitalist advertising media.

Originally a British movement of the late 1950s, Pop Art interpreted images from consumer culture with black humor, irony, and criticism. In its American form, Pop Art presented less harsh images, adapting sources such as comic strips, commercial products, and publicity photos. This deliberate departure from the gestural style of Abstract Expressionism shocked the art world in the early 1960s.




Exhibition view, Mao Wallpaper, Andy Warhol, Musée Galliera, Paris, 1974
Photograph by Jacqueline Hyde
The Art Institute’s Mao was first exhibited in Paris in 1974 with three other 15-foot canvases and many other, smaller Mao paintings. The gallery walls were covered with Mao Wallpaper, specially designed for the installation.

Francis Bacon

Christie's auction house sold "Three Studies for Self Portrait" by Francis Bacon, which was painted by the British artist in 1976 -- the same year as the "Triptych," auctioned at Sotheby's. "Self Portrait" fetched $28 million at Christie's May 13 sale; it was expected to sell for $25-$35 million.
(Courtesy Christie's Images LTD. 2008)














Spring Auction Highlights

Two major works by contemporary artist Francis Bacon were on the auction block this spring. This triptych, painted in 1976, was expected to sell in the region of $70 million May 14 at Sotheby's Contemporary and Post-War art sale. It sold for $86.28 -- a record sale for a painting by a contemporary artist.
(Courtesy Sotheby's New York)

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol's "Double Marlon" went on the auction block at Christie's May 13 Contemporary and Post-War Auction. The work, signed and dated twice "Andy Warhol 1966," depicts Brando in a still from "The Wild One," which is silkscreened on unprimed linen. It was the highest-fetching work by Warhol at Christie's May 13 auction and sold for $32.52 million.
(Courtesy Christie's Images LTD. 2008)















Some consider Andy Warhol's pop art genius, but others wonder how a painting of Elizabeth Taylor could fetch over $30 million. Warhol's "Liz," 1963, was expected to fetch between $25 and $35 million at Christie's contemporary auction Tuesday. It sold for $23.6 million.
(Christie's)














Meanwhile, bidders had a chance to snatch up one of Andy Warhol's iconic Campbell soup cans, "Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot)," 1962, for an estimated $7 to $9 million at Sotheby's. It sold for $8.4 million.
(Sotheby's)

Lucian Freud

Spring Auction Highlights

Among the broken records at the Christie's Contemporary and Post-War Art auction Tuesday night was a painting by Lucian Freud, "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" (1995), which sold for $33 million. The life-size painting, which was expected to fetch $25-$35 million, was considered the British artist's most important painting to go on auction and set a sales record for work by a living artist.

Check out other record-setting sales at this spring season's auctions.

Prices include a buyer's premium.
(Courtesy Christie's Images LTD. 2008)