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Art object
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An art object is a physical object that is considered to fulfil or have fulfilled an independent and primarily aesthetic function. The possession of art objects has, since the English Licensing Act of 1662, been increasingly divorced from the possession of copyright. An art object is often seen in the context of a larger artwork, oeuvre, genre, culture, or convention. Physical objects that document immaterial art works, but do not conform to artistic conventions have transubstantiated into art objects.
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An art object is a physical object that is considered to fulfil or have fulfilled an independent and primarily aesthetic function. The possession of art objects has, since the English Licensing Act of 1662, been increasingly divorced from the possession of copyright. An art object is often seen in the context of a larger artwork, oeuvre, genre, culture, or convention. Physical objects that document immaterial art works, but do not conform to artistic conventions have transubstantiated into art objects. The term is common within the museum industry.
Marcel Duchamp critiqued the idea that the "objet d’art" should be a unique product of an artist's labor, representational of their technical skill and/or artistic caprice. It has been argued that objects and people do not have a constant meaning, but their meanings are fashioned by humans in the context of their culture, as they have the ability to make things mean or signify something. Michael Craig Martin said of his work An Oak Tree, "It's not a symbol. I have changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree. I didn't change its appearance. The actual oak tree is physically present, but in the form of a glass of water."
A distinction has long been made between the physical qualities of an art object and its status as an artwork. An artwork such a Dutch 17th century painting has a physical existence as a painting that is separate from its identity as a Rembrandt masterpiece. Many works of art, such as Duchamp's famous Fountain, have been initially denied "museum quality", and later cloned as "museum quality replicas". Similarly, the 19th century boom in sculptural and architectural duplication and replication has created an extremely complex patinated art object, to match the Renaissance attitude to classical duplication, but using the techniques of casting, electrotyping, photography, printing, and forging. For centuries, fashion has changed in what is considered an acceptable art object, although there is a considerable degree of cross-cultural respect and awareness.
In 1936 Walter Benjamin wrote in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction that "in the case of the art object, a most sensitive nucleus – namely, its authenticity – is interfered with whereas no natural object is vulnerable on that score. The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced. Since the historical testimony rests on the authenticity, the former, too, is jeopardized by reproduction when substantive duration ceases to matter. And what is really jeopardized when the historical testimony is affected is the authority of the object"
Art can be objectified after the death of the artist, in for example Degas's sculptures cast after his death, or Cezanne's unsuccessful sketches which were presented as art objects following his death.
There is a debate as to why "art objects" made by artists are valued higher than craft objects made by Craftsmen.
In 1973 Lucy Lippard anthologised the de-materialization at work in conceptual art.
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