Monday, 25 January 2010

Understanding Bourdieu


After Fridays lecture we were asked to read chapter 8 of Understanding Bourdieu and talk about the main points outlined. The chapter focuses on what makes art while touching on class and taste. It questions whether the talent for art is inhereted or adopted as a result of your class.
Bourdieu states that people who know a lot about art tend to be from a higher class therefore demonstrating that class could have something to with what makes someone an "artist". Despite this, being well educated about art doesn't automatically prove that you will have a talent for it or be anymore interested in the subject than someone form a lower class.
It is wondered why something is considered art and if it is because it is seen in a museum, or because the person who created it is already know as an artist or maybe because it is simply aesthetically pleasing, either way art is created to make a statement rather than to make a living, it is "symbolic rather than material".
Art is considered by the Frankfurt School writer Theodor Adorno, and sociologists of art, Arnold Foster and Judith Blau to be able to perform a "social magic" while Bourdieu disagrees and sees art as a sacred sphere of sculpture but what makes something art is clearly debatable and maybe there isn't a correct answer.

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