The Function of Art

[Opal]

I'll withhold my opinion for now, but what purpose, or purposes, do you feel art serves?

 

[Vasilisa]

Back to School by Lauren Purje




From an old thread on abstract and modern art

I'm not so well versed in philosophy or the philosophy of aesthetics. But I do enjoy many kinds of modern art and I want to share a perspective that helps me understand why response to art is so personal and varied, and why thats okay. Many people want to focus on the intention of the artist or the message or statement, but I see it as more fundamental, going deeper than even that.

At the center of everything we call 'the arts', and children call 'play', is something which seems somehow alive.

It's not alive in the way you and I are alive, but it's certainly not dead.

It's alive in the way our memory is alive.

Alive in the way the ocean is alive and able to transport us and contain us.

Alive in the way thinking is not, but experiencing is, made of both memory and imagination, this is the thing we mean by 'an image'

So art for me is about getting behind images and being pulled by them. Its about images' aliveness and the aliveness that we feel when we experience them.
It happens for the creator and the viewer. The creator isn't merely going through motions to please viewers, creativity is about giving life to ones own personal images. For me as a viewer, appreciating modern art can involve quieting my thoughtful mind and just letting the image take shape, unfold or transform how it is meant to for me. And that doesn't always happen, and I suppose thats why I prefer particular works. Its really not about trying to figure something out, evaluating or judging, or worrying about if the jokes on me. Its about the experience of trusting in a patient state of mind that allows things to reveal themselves. Things that resonate.

But I understand the criticism, the distrust. Its very common. I wondered if this thread would reference this article which I read recently.

“People untrained in visual art see more than they realize when looking at abstract expressionist paintings. People may say that a child could have made a work by a recognized abstract expressionist, but when forced to choose between a work by a child and one by a master such as Rothko, they are drawn to the Rothko even when the work is falsely attributed to a child or nonhuman. People see the mind behind the art.”

I also think they see something in themselves reflected. I think thats the power of images.

 

[Yama]

Besides all the cheesy answers, I think the purpose of art is to give people some sort of stimulation or meaning. Art is such a general word, it can take so many different forms, but at least in my opinion, the best kind of art pieces are the ones that get you to think. Why? Why did they make this? What was their point? How did they do it? It gives us an appreciation for life in the current moment. Like, I think [MENTION=20757]Opal[/MENTION] 's avatar is absolutely beautiful, and every time I see it I'm mesmerized. It makes me stop and think and reflect. It's more than just aesthetics.

 

[SD45T-2]

From an old thread on abstract and modern art

"If you have an art gallery (I do go to art galleries quite a bit) you hang a picture on the wall (a lot of people have to go to take modern or whatever) and they file past a picture and they look at it, but with a car you can be walking around doing whatever you do, you're going to your shops or coming out of your office and the car drives past and you go "Oh look, there's a Lamborghini. That's nice." And really if you buy an expensive painting, if you've got a Rembrandt or something like that you, should hang it outside your house on the wall so as people walk on they can see it."

 

[Kas]

[MENTION=9273]Vasilisa[/MENTION] it reminds me what Oscar Wilde said in his introduction to The Picture of Dorian Grey: “We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.”
Following this thought art is a form of admiration and that’s probably not the worst definition.


I think that the reason of the art is a aesthetic sensitivity and appreciation of beauty, creativity. Besides of that there are not many other ways to express oneself so well.

Art is (more or less) personal. We may talk with each other but how often we can find out how one truely see and understand things? Our perception of the world is completely different. It’s amazing to have even a slight inside into thoughts and ideas of the other person. I like to think that the art is a way to see many worlds or share your world with other people.

 

[Forever]

One word: Therapy.

 

[Evee]

Art discloses (unhides) the world itself; That is to say it opens up the world in such a way as to reveal that which resists unconcealment.

 

[tkae.]

"As a human being the artist may have many moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense – he is 'collective man' – one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic life of mankind." -- Carl Gustav Jung

 

[INTP]

Art is an expression of the unconscious, to which some peoples own unconscious can relate and feel what the artist feels.

 

[Opal]

One of my art professors considered art that doesn't challenge and rebuke culture to be kitsch.

Fundamentally, I see art as communication (totally open-ended), and I value art that educates and expands the minds of its beholders. Art's most important function, I think, is to critique the reality we accept, on cultural and personal levels--to remind (or show) us life can be different.

 

[Blackout]

I think he's come to closet to describing, how I feel about it at least.

 

[Blackout]

And just because:

"Being a misfit or outsider can be distressing or downright painful, especially as a teen, but many artists say it is part of their experience that helps them be more creative.

Anne Rice

Writer Anne Rice talks about being “a bad student, I daydreamed in class, wrote stories in my notebooks. I learned the basics, but most of my active intellectual life was outside of school. It was acutely painful because [my sister and I] felt different, like misfits. Our individuality was almost irrepressible, but I wanted to fit in.”

“Artists need to be outsiders in order to really view what’s going on. That little bit of detachment has been great for me… As artists, we have to be brave. If we aren’t brave, we aren’t artists.”

 

[Kas]

One of my art professors considered art that doesn't challenge and rebuke culture to be kitsch.

I don't fully understand. Do you mean rebelling against what the art was before?


Btw I think that Banksy film Exit Through the Gift Shop was interesting as we talk about the meaning of art or what the art is.

 

[Evee]

"As a human being the artist may have many moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense – he is 'collective man' – one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic life of mankind." -- Carl Gustav Jung

This quote is amazing.

Jung was far ahead of his time and our own time.

 

[Oaky]

Experience of stimulation, insight and/or emotion can be what art tries to achieve. Even if it's facepalming frustration and insight to the idiocy of modern art...

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Experience of stimulation, insight and/or emotion can be what art tries to achieve. Even if it's facepalming frustration and insight to the idiocy of modern art...

Art is most useful for me as escape. It's a distraction from other things I'd rather not think about. I find myself in need of things that are more optimistic and positive at the moment. I think I'm not alone.

I admit to not being impressed by a blank canvas.

 

[Oaky]

I admit to not being impressed by a blank canvas.

No worries, there was work put into that. True fact in that it was painted white.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

No worries, there was work put into that. True fact in that it was painted white.

I'm not impressed by Rothko, either.

 

[Fun in the Sun]

People over intellectualize art. Just do it, make it look great, and make someone happy with it. Enjoy it!

 

[Fun in the Sun]

Common people know what art is. It may be something that just looks aesthetically good, it could tell a story, it evokes emotions, it can make people feel better. The modern era did something different with art, making it very existential and academic and relative, like this poop on the floor is art. What a bunch of crap!