Yes, as perfumers we believe that perfume is art and that perfume can be considered as a separate, distinct form of art.
Or, … is it just a craft?
Beethoven for your ears. Romeo & Juliet on the stage, Van Gogh for your eyes and Pairfum London for your nose?
As perfumers, we would argue, that like any other artistic medium, perfume creation involves a great deal of creativity, skill, and expertise. Perfumers use their sense of smell, knowledge of fragrance materials, and artistic sensibility to craft unique scents that evoke emotions, memories and sensations.
Perfume can be considered a form of olfactory art that uses scent as its medium of expression and as such is a distinct form of art.
The Definition of Art?
When discussing whether fragrances are artistic, we should look at what is actually the definition of art?
By comparison, the definition of a craft, involves the skilled making of something but it does mention ‘artistic’.
The following is the definition of art according to Wikipedia:
“Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.”
The definition of art according to Stanford’s Encyclopedia Philosophy aims to incorporate why some modern forms of art “lack any significant aesthetic dimension”.
Does this mean, that just like beauty, whether “perfume is art” lies in the eye of the beholder?
Perfume Art
Keeping these definitions in mind, we can say that just as a painting or a piece of music can convey meaning and emotion, so too can a well-crafted fragrance be regarded as a piece of ‘perfume art‘.
Perfumers often draw inspiration from a variety of sources, such as nature, literature, music, food, drink and culture. They use their artistic skill to translate these inspirations into fragrances.
Moreover, perfume is often packaged and marketed in a way that emphasizes its artistic qualities. The bottles, packaging and advertising campaigns for perfumes are often designed to convey a sense of luxury, beauty,and creativity, similar to how a work of art is presented.
“By any reasonable and rational definition that applies to an art medium, scent is one – and clearly so,” says Chandler Burr, perfume expert and olfactory curator for New York’s Museum of Art and Design.
In conclusion, while some may not consider perfume as a art form, it can be argued that it is, in fact, a form of artistic expression and consequently should be regarded as art.
Would you agree or disagree that perfume is art?
One way of finding out is wearing one of our Natural Niche Perfumes. We guarantee you will be complimented.
