On the Nature of Art and its Relation to Humanity
Note: I wrote this essay for a Philosophy of the Person class. I hated that
class and this is the only assignment I took seriously. I also take your questions
and your comments seriously, so e-mail me about it! I'm all ears.
Many things in our world can be considered "art." People give many senseless definitions without ever giving it a thought. This essay will discuss what art is andd its relation to the people who make it and are the audience for it.
First of all, I'd like to point out that there are two different types of art: functional, and fine art. Fine art is made for the sake of the art itself, whereas functional art tends to have some other function in society. Both kinds of art have some aspects in common (such as the presence of creativity), but differ in goal and process. In this essay, I will elaborate on fine art only.
Second of all, I'd like to point out that this essay does not discuss good fine art and bad fien art except in its relationship to humanity.
The four goals of fine art:
What is fine art? It is art that is made for the sake of making art. Fine art achieves one or more of the following four goals:
1. The first goal of fine art is to express the artist's feelings/emotions. This particular type of art isn't concerned with an audience at all. A perfect example of this sort of artist is Emily Dickenson. She spent her life inside her house, never showing her poetry to the outside world, as she felt publishing her work would sully her work. She wrote for herself and herself only.
2. The second goal of fine art is to convey a message, feeling, or idea.This category includes political, philosophical, psychological and emotional art. Picasso's Guernica is an example of such an artwork: it conveys a striking message about war. The difference between this type and the first is that this one requires an audience. The artist may try to reach everyone (which is likely impossible), or just a specific audience.
3. The third goal of fine art is to evoke an emotion from the audience. This goal is closely tied with the second goal. They often go together, but don't have to. A painting of a wounded kitten, for instance, would likely evoke the emotion of pity and empathy in most viewers, but doesn't necessarily convey any message. It may or may not, and again, doesn't necessarily affect all viewers, or all viewers in the same way.
4. The fourth goal of fine art is to capture something captivating, something of aesthetic value. This category is comprised of such art as landscape paintings, poems describing beauty, a beautiful dance, et cetera. This one may or may not require an audience, but the likelihood is that it does because those who want to capture beauty, want to share it as well.
At this point, I want to separate the artist from the art and let the art stand for itself. I want to do this because I believe that whether or not the artist achieves the goal he set out to achieve or not, as long as he achieves one of the aforementioned goals, he is creating fine art. How well it turns out truly depends on the process of his art-making.
The process of art-making:
First of all, I'd like to say that the artist is free in making his art. Sometime during the process of making the art, however, (it may be at the very beginning, or later on) the artwork takes on a life of its own and becomes its own separate entity. What exactly does this mean? I will illustrate with an example. Tolstoy once wrote a letter to his friend as he was writing one of his novels. He wrote, "what a strange thing my Tatyana has done! She's gone and gotten married!" Tatyana is a character in his novel. Tolstoy was actually surprised by the actions of his character! He was no longer in control. This is because Tolstoy's characters had become their own entities-- they had achieved reality. I have often experienced a similar situation with my own paintings, as have many of my artist friends. This is the highest state in which an artwork may be.
Ironically, allowing one's art to define itself, may in the end actually contradict the artist's original intent/goal. This does not diminish the artwork. In reality, it makes one or more of the four goals easier to achieve, as there is farm more believability in the artwork, because it truly is real, at this point. In this case, by "real," I don't mean that it represents reality accurately, but that it is true and accurate within its own framework. Tolstoy had built a framework for his artwork and Tatyana was real, within that framework; there she lived her own life, though in reality she was not a real person. I should point out that not all artists allow their artworks to be real within their own framework, which tends to break the believability of the artwork.
What does this mean for the artist, and how does this relate to my initial statement that the artist is free? Obviously, the artist isn't taken completely out of the picture. He is still an integral part of creating the artwork. There is a saying (not a very popular one), "The artist's hand knows more than his head." This saying illustrates my point perfectly. There is a degree of intuition involved, and much less of intellect. If an artist truly wants a piece to go a certain way, it takes either a lot talent, to simply know how to start and finish it the way he wants, or a lot of careful planning and building of the framework. If the artist builds the framework exactly right, then the characters will live in it naturally. The reason I say the artist is free, is that he absolutely MUST be in order to allow the artwork to be real, to be its own entity. If there are any restrictions on the artist, then there is a chance that he will not be able to set up the correct framework, or that his characters will not be able to live freely within it, according to their own wishes. Also note, that when I say "characters," I am not referring necessarily to people, but to all the things that play a role in the artwork.
Art, as it relates to its audience:
Assuming one or more of the four goals has been reached by the artist, regardless of what he originally had in mind, this is what art is to its audience. The believable characters of the artwork and the audience that sees, hears, or reads about them has real relationships with them. If an artwork captivates you, the likelihood is that you have stepped into a relationship with the character. For instance, when you stay up all night to find out what happens in a book because you are worried about the main character, that is because you have a relationship with him. If you look at a painting, and feel frightened of the image, you have a relationship with it. If you become so obsorbed in a song or a dance that you forget everything else, you have a relationship with it. If you have to remind yourself it's not real when watching a scary movie, that means you have a relationship with the screen.
This can be illustrated with a more specific example. For instance, you have rented a movie, say, Amelie, and loved it so much that you knew you would want to watch it again and again! When you went to buy yourself a copy, they didn't have it in stock. If you've really stepped into a relationship with the characters of Amelie (and clearly you have, since you love the artwork so much), then you would be upset by this. Normally, a person wouldn't just say "Oh well, I'll buy some other french movie," and go home with The Closet. This doesn't make sense, since it is specifically Amelie that you had your heart set on. This is because you wanted to experience the story of Amelie over and over again. You wanted to see Amelie and the rest of the whimsical characters and their interractions with one another. You wanted to see them happy and sad, you wanted to hope for the lovers' meeting, and for the best for all the characters, even though you know how it ends. This is the reason you love it so much, not because it's a french movie. Everyone knows there are tons of bad french movies! But you wouldn't feel so happy or sad or worried about anyone in real life if you didn't have a personal relationship with them (even if it's a person you've never met, it's still possible to have a personal relationship with them, if you single them out among the rest. It happens with celebrities all the time!). Therefore, you have a real personal relationship with the personages of Amelie, or whatever artwork has currently captivated you.
Art's Place in the World:
Although the first and fourth goals of art were not very prominant until somewhat recently, the second and third have always been. Art has always been a vital tool to convey messages and evoke emotions. Even on a "Last Judgement" Altarpiece, this was a big part of the artwork. Clearly this conveys a message to redeem yourself while you can and give yourself to Christ, as well as evokes the emotions of fear of hell and hope of heaven. Today, in our post-modern society, there are no rules for art to follow any longer and it does not adhere to any standard like there have been before (art must be religious, art must be beautiful, et cetera). But there are still rules that art itself will always have to follow. Those are the rules described above -- it must reach one of those four goals and it must do so freely.
Art will always be a driving force in society, as long as the artist is free to create as he pleases and the audience is free view the work as it pleases. Artificial restrictions on art are always a hindrance to culture and society, be they law, social constraints, or monetary constraints.
In today's society, art doesn't play as much of a role as does entertainment. Yes, there are some aspects of entertainment that are artistic (but most likely it is functional art), but not to the extent of fine art. One of the few places where fine art still plays a big role is in literature, but even then, much modern literature is more political non-finction than fine art. Also, literature is one of the least widespread forms of art today. If people paid more attention to fine art, I think more progress would be made in culture and society in general.
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