WHAT IS ART?

PHOTOS OF FACES INTERPRETED BY DIFFERENT CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS OF BEAUTY.

R. Mutt 1947 Duchamp

Duchamp challenged us with R.e. Mutt,

many artists to day challenge us even Thomas Kinkade

Thomas Kinkade 

with his realistic light pictures that he literally mass produced.  Many people not in the art world might think any realistic picture is art sitting next to a

Jackson Pollock, Abstract Painter

Pollack or Kandinsky, but in my opinion they would be very wrong. Art is not about realism, nor do we need it to be after the invention of the camera that was no longer necessary as a prime function.

Karen Honig is a journalist from Kansas City.  She got an idea about sending a photo of her self to many different countries and asking them to make her beautiful.  (as in for a magazine shot or advertisement).  The result shows vividly our differing views of beauty depending on our own cultural background.  

The differences in culture continue to mesmerize me.  I have lived in other cultures for extended periods of time in my life.  It has led me to want to study and explore the differences of all cultures, and how those differences effect us. Colors, images, sound, and even how close you stand to a person when you are talking to them can have such different meanings.  I think it is part of what led to the idea of the "Ugly American".  Americans, at one time, were not interested or nor sensitive to cultural differences when traveling and many misunderstandings ensued. There were many a time in Asia I just wanted to crawl under a rock and hide because the horrible behavior of some Americans overseas. To me Karen's idea is a work of art, as in a conceptual view of culture.  It help us see and understand how other peoples view beauty. And I present it here as such, a conceptual work of art.  

25 FACES IN CULTURE

Karen Honig, 25 faces of beauty in culture              google image for express purpose of art advocacy

"The project, titled Before & After, originally came to Honig while she was working as a social media manager for a small startup. Her boss introduced her to Fiverr, an international freelancing website where anyone can hire freelancers from around the globe to complete almost any task imaginable. While browsing the site, Honig realized the prevalence of those offering Photoshop skills. “It immediately occurred to me that in this pool of workers, each individual likely had an aesthetic preference particular to their own culture,” Honig told BuzzFeed. Thus, the idea for Before & After was born." from Buz Feed, Ashley Perez