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My Definition of Visual Art
Visual art, such as that represented in paintings and sculptures, typically offers the observer a glimpse into the essence of the artist behind it. As the name suggests, visual art entails the use of sight in the attempt to decipher, interpret, or just appreciate it. In many ways, visual art is a representation of nature and an artist’s capacity to discern nature’s various dimensions. For instance, some of the world’s renowned painters, such as Vincent van Gogh, got their inspiration from observing the world around them. Sometimes, they would paint reimagined landscapes of their surroundings as they saw them, while other times, they would create completely novel ideas based on their understanding of nature. In this regard, it would be accurate to associate such artists’ work with their own view of the world.
Defining visual art becomes a complicated undertaking when one takes into consideration the fact that it is a public interest, while the process of defining it takes on a completely private nature. This is to say that it can be seen from the artist’s perspective as he or she intended it, or it can be interpreted based on the observer’s own personal prejudices. In the first case, visual art is seen as the artist publicly showcased it, without regard to any hidden elements. As such, the one interpreting the specific piece of visual art relies exclusively on what the artist provides. Contrarily, it can be defined based on the essential substance, which it represents as determined by the observer. This means that the observer has to approach the art subjectively. In so doing, he or she effectively detaches himself or herself from what the originator of the work might have intended.