Art or Not Art?

When I teach illustration and art theory, one question keeps coming up, especially from younger students: “But is that really art?” They usually mean abstract or modernist art. Often Picasso. “He draws like a child — how is he one of the most famous artists ever?” It’s kind of wild, because that exact skepticism was being thrown around over a hundred years ago when the modernists started breaking away from the rules.
Haven’t we come further than that by now?

So I use music as a parallel. Because, somehow, it’s easier for people to accept experimentation in music than in visual art.Saying something isn’t art because it lacks technical perfection is like saying only classical music or opera counts as “real” music.

I remember when Håkan Hellström (a beloved Swedish artist) broke through people said he couldn’t sing in tune, and that he just copied his heroes. So how come he resonated so deeply with people? Because, at the end of the day, it’s all about emotion. And by “emotion” I don’t just mean sad or happy, I mean something that cuts through expectation, style, aesthetic. Something honest. That’s why I love children’s drawings they’re fearless. There’s no overthinking, no filter. Just expression.Maybe that’s why I’ve always seen art and music as creative siblings the same raw impulse, just a different language. As a fun exercise, I sometimes imagine which visual artists match which musicians. Here’s my (very unofficial, very biased) list:

Artists as Musicians (and vice versa)

• Miles Davis = Kandinsky
  Abstract, intuitive, emotionally electric.

• Leonardo da Vinci = Mozart
  Brilliant technique, effortless precision, timeless genius.

• Wu-Tang Clan = Jean-Michel Basquiat
  Raw, poetic chaos with deep layers of meaning.

• Håkan Hellström = Henri Matisse
  Bright, emotional, and beautifully imperfect.

• Björk = Hilma af Klint
  Mystical, experimental, spiritually ahead of their time.

• David Bowie = Salvador Dalí
  Shape-shifting icons who redefined their mediums.

• Nick Cave = Francis Bacon
  Dark, haunting, brutally honest and still poetic.

• Frank Ocean = Mark Rothko
  Still, layered, quietly intense.

• Kanye West = Pablo Picasso
  Bold, controversial, constantly reinventing themselves.

• Lana Del Rey = Edward Hopper
  Melancholic Americana, nostalgia, and cinematic loneliness.

• Radiohead = Marcel Duchamp
  Conceptual rebels, deconstructing form and meaning.

• Beyoncé = Artemisia Gentileschi
  Mastery, power, and full creative command.

• Tyler, the Creator = Keith Haring
  Bold, playful, vibrant but always saying something real.

• Joni Mitchell = Georgia O’Keeffe
  Nature, introspection, and total creative independence.

• Prince = Egon Schiele
  Sensuality, vulnerability, and electric expression.

Got any pairings you’d add to the list?
Who’s your favorite musician and which artist do you think they’d be?