“Art is Subjective”

Art, to me, has always held its incredibly fascinating qualities within the variety it presents. In its endless amount of forms, art is mainly constructed in order to make observers feel something. Some art invokes happiness. Personally, whenever I gaze upon Claude Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines, I feel a warmth inside. Perhaps this is because winter in Paris and cities alike are incomparable in experience. Whenever I see Vermeer’s unmistakable Girl with a Pearl Earring, I feel wonder which can only be evoked by the mystery this piece is shrouded in.

It is the very essence of this emotion that makes art what it is. You may have heard the phrase “art is subjective”. Although this is entirely a cliché, it does hold true to some extent. For example, upon first viewing Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, I was left confused. I would say that this reaction is not uncommon in any regard, and many readymade sculptures can leave viewers as I was. To simply display a urinal and call it art felt lazy to me at first.

Fountain 1917, replica 1964, Marcel Duchamp

As time went on, and I learned more about the Dada art movement that this piece stemmed from, I began to appreciate it more. The movement was founded upon its core principles of questioning society and establishment. This movement was affiliated with the radical left, and showed this through its anti-war and anti-bourgeois stance.

Fountain was submitted as an artwork to the Society of Independent Artists’ salon in New York. The society themselves even claimed that as long as the artist paid the application fee, they would display their work. Of course, they rejected Duchamp’s piece, claiming that it was not a true artwork. Duchamp protested this decision, likely in correlation with the Dada movement’s view on establishment. Who were this society to claim what true art was and was not?

Although this piece is mocked, and likely will be for the rest of eternity, it stands as an influence for artists everywhere. This readymade sculpture pushed the boundaries of art and posed the question of what art really is.

The answer is that art is subjective. A piece may make one revel over how such brilliance could be achieved, and make another question art entirely. It is this contrast that makes art so inexhaustible and enjoyable.

Written by Julius Miller and edited by Teagan Foti