Art. Martial arts. Performing arts. Fine art. Creative arts. Pshh, my father once told me that driving is an art. The term “Art” is a highly subjective word. Its application is endless and universal. What makes art so hard to categorize is the ability for anyone to claim something is art. No masters or phD required. And there isn’t a single person in the world that could claim its not. Art is truly in the eye of the beholder. It is the uniqueness of an object, task, or idea in the eyes of a specific individual that makes something art. I remember being shown one of these paintings ( to be honest, I don’t really know the specific technicalities of the image) in 8th Grade. To me, the uniqueness of the image was just how “fat” everyone was in the picture. This “fat” was Fernando Botero’s signature. That was his art. It also allowed me to identify his work almost instantly, even if i had never seen it before. There certainly must be something special, something unique, something different about the way he drew (The way apple always likes to describe its iphones). By defining art as simply uniqueness, I can better tangle, argue, and interpret a vague, ambiguous, and highly abstract idea even though my gut instinct to define art would be beauty. Thinking about that answer however, it sounds just as convoluted as the term I wish to define.

Museums, as well as highly influential and famous painters, have a great role, not so much in defining art (as the definition varies from person to person), but by giving certain works “more space” than others. It is inevitable that a person who happens to have his work showcased will recieve more recognition than a person with no name. The best and most amazing experience I had into this realm happened in the last several months. My economics teacher, (who also happens to be a lawyer in Colorado) was a studio artist for many years. On the last day of school he bought in his paintings. Having seen him draw the most crooked axes lines on the board the whole year, I was absolutely stunned to see amazing paintings. I could not believe this was my economics teacher. I asked him how much each painting was worth, to discover that they were worth pocket change. He explained to me that the fact that he was not recognized by anyone made his art less valuable than Starry night by Gogh, even though in my opinion his skill equally rivaled such famous painters.

Art is constantly changing. New ideas and social norms are frequently reflected within artwork. Museums play a large role in making sure that art on display reflect these trends. More than anything however, I keep in mind that a lot of the work on display belongs to famous and upper class individuals. Money makes the world go ’round. If I ran a museum, I would certainly want exhibits to bring in the most paying patrons of the art. You can say I’m cynical, but I’ll simply tell you that I’m a realist.

-Waseem Bassam Iqnaibi