What is Good Art?

They say art is subjective. I believe that to a large degree, but there are other elements that must be considered when judging art.

Telling good art from the bad art is a matter of

1. understanding an artist’s technique, medium, and competition enough to decide if he has created something that others have not created in the past and/or others would have trouble duplicating.

2. recognizing that the artist makes use of basic tenets of his medium, using compositional theories, lighting techniques, and effects to enhance his final product

3. seeing that the artist has expressed a unique personal vision. The artist has shown us a perspective of the world that includes his view of beauty or the lack of it.

4. Acknowledging whether or not the piece has a subject that affects us on an emotional level and the technique that the artist used makes us feel that emotion strongly.

I find that many who judge art on a professional level do not have all of these basics covered. This is especially true in the area of photography when an artists accustomed to looking at fine art paintings is asked to judge this very different medium. A judge who does not understand the medium must rely on elements 3-4, but will miss the preliminary two critical elements.

Case in point: A photographer stands in the woods and is lucky enough to view an unusual creature scurrying across the forest floor. The creature looks up and the photographer snaps the camera. She has been lucky enough to get a head on shot of the forest creature looking right at her. There are lots of shadows on the ground. The photographer didn't appropriately adjust white balance or meter so that the snow appears white and the shadows appear dark. Rather, the snow in the final photo appears gray. The creature was also moving so fast that he is just a tad out of focus. The image evokes good feelings. There are people who love this creature and would buy this picture to hang on their wall because it makes them feel good. Is this fine art or was this a lucky shot?

As a viewer who is not a judge, it is okay for you to judge a painting on levels 3 and 4. In fact, you should rely more heavily on these points because presumably, if you are trying to decide whether to buy a piece of artwork, you are planning to live with it for a long time in your home. You need to like it, whether or not it is good art in the higher sense. It is the professional or serious critic of art who needs to study and understand the history of art AND the particular art medium he is judging. In my mind, this makes art historians the most capable judges of multi-medium shows and not artists who have mastered a particular medium. (Unless, of course, they have gone out of their way to study the tenets of other mediums that they are judging.) Unfortunately, at art competitions, this is not always what the competing artist encounters.