What is Art

Recently in class we had a debate about what is art. This is an interesting subject because after what Duchamp did with his piece "Fountain" technically anything can be considered art. This was the main point behind his piece. He was such a famous artist at the time that it seemed anything he created was automatically hailed as a great piece of art. So he submitted this piece anonymously under the name of someone else. When it was discovered it was him some did in fact praise it as art while other were offended that he had the gall to mock art in such a way. But the point of the piece wasn't that the piece is art but that art can be anything. The debate we had in class was when a student placed a door into the middle of the river for a project. Although it is not the usual style of art, in terms of contemporary art it is still considered art. However to one student it was not art because there did not seem to be any much effort in creating it. he believed that in order for something to be art there has to be effort in its creation. However he seemed to think the only effort that seemed to count was that of physical effort and not mental. What he probably did not realize is that the student had to think up something that when created would have a certain meaning. For example the meaning of the piece to me was that the river was a doorway to fun. This is because I use to float down the river as a kid and it was one of my best memories. I think in the end that is the difference between art and a prank. Art asks people to think about what it means to them or what was the artist trying to express. It tries to draw forth an emotion or idea from its viewer in a way that is unusual. A prank on the other hand has the purpose of angering the person or audience it is targeting. And although some art does achieve this same effect it is done so for a different reason. I think that as long as the intention of the piece is to expand the mind or make the viewer think and realize the statement the artist is trying to make then it can't be considered a prank. So what art is isn't so much about what the viewer considers to be art but more the intentions behind the piece.