Art

I'm wondering about the interaction of a viewer with a piece of art. Beyond a basic psychological response of "I like it" or even a highly-reasoned critique, is there anything about art which spurs the viewer to do anything, to take any action? I suppose I'm asking about our response to art. Can you qualify a 'good' piece of art as one which produces a certain response in a person?

Comments

Art certainly can get us to do things or think in a certain way, and it is that which made Tolstoy attack it, since it controls our emotions, he argued, and took them down very dangerous avenues. It is going too far though to define good art as that which produces the right sort of response, since a lot of art we admire as art might evince in us a rather questionable response.That is, we may think highly of the art but not of the emotions it produces, or what it inspires us to do. You have touched on an interesting aspect of art, though, which is that it produces different effects on different people, and so we are bound to wonder whether it is irretrievably subjective in nature. I am afraid that trying to define the value of art in terms of its effects will be just as variable and subjective as any other attempt at getting that relationship pinned down.

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