A RAVE ON ART
Written By Gwen Villanueva
"The art market is an overheated system built on partial information, asymmetries of knowledge, and incentives that quietly encourage optimism.” - Noah Charney, Patterns Without Desires, 2026.
When we correlate a painting with its artist and vice versa, it is a bond we create between ourselves, the art, and the artist. Attribution in itself is human and our judgement of artworks, along with even the background knowledge of the artwork significantly affects our perception of said work. It is subjective. We can take Basquiat and his symbolism. His style is recognizable, which is why we know his artwork is his. We attribute his style to his beliefs as each symbol is something that he, from his own experience, has seen throughout his life, and implemented into his artwork; more than a symbol.
“Perception is a matter of inference rather than direct seeing,” - Ellen Winner, Whys of Seeing, 2019.
Without us, the viewer, the connoisseur, the consumer, or whatever, art ceases to exist. Our ability to call something art is undeniably human along with our imagination. Forgery, or even the word, is always considered and viewed negatively because they’re typically less. Less aesthetic, less value, less interesting, despite looking almost identical to the original. However, that’s only with the knowledge of attributing the fake as a fake.
“It is difficult to think of a medium where creative practice has not been thoroughly transformed by computation and an attendant series of optimisations,” - Ed Finn, Art by Algorithm, 2017.
To reiterate: art is subjective. Medium and style will impact everyone differently, but that doesn’t change the artist’s original message that they want to convey through an artform. Still, artificial intelligence and its impact in the creative field is much too normalized and looked over. Specifically generative AI which takes away from an artist’s passion and replaces it with convenience. The consumer’s capability of emotion is diminished. When was the last time you stared at an art piece for more than two minutes? Its aesthetic and conventionality doesn’t matter at all as long as you, the individual, understand the work as if you understand the artist itself.
In its essence, art is wide in its entirety, but art by nature will always have depth. Whether in creation or consumption, our experiences will shape our perception, and that depth will be much more internal and personal. Nonetheless, to be able to understand it requires you to sit with it, attribute your experience with it, and with the creator. Art was never meant to be taken lightly.
About The Author
My name is Gwen Villanueva. I am seventeen and currently a junior in high school. Having the ability to express my thoughts and create is one of the best things about life. I like to believe that the world is my oyster and put a little glitter on my eyelids. Thank you!
