It has the power to move our emotions and shape ideals. It can be thought provoking and it’s even capable of transforming what it means to be human. Sometimes it’s intended to convey reality and other times it’s a way to escape it. Through its many diversities and commonalities around the world, it shows us how we’ve evolved in time. From hunter gatherers and the rise of civilization into the industrial revolution, art has remained eternal and by nature, a representation of culture and a way to preserve history.
For the artist, creation comes from an abstract, inner sense of self with the desire to express. The art experience can come from any of the senses and no two people will perceive an identical form. Art is universal, in that it can take on a life and form of it’s own, living beyond the time, place and mentality of its creation. It’s not clear what the original purpose was for the oldest forms of what we now call art. In many cases it was probably more for ritualistic symbolism then it was for aesthetic pleasure. It’s worth noting that when creativities started coming about, it’s because the human mind was evolving in important ways. The ability of creativity is a distinguishing feature that separates humans from the rest of the animal life on the planet.
A long time ago some of our distant ancestors crossed over from a life style of only doing the things needed to survive, to a developed urge for something more. Artistic expression might even predate homo sapiens by a few hundred thousand years. The discovery of shells, believed to be engraved by Homo erectus date back as far as five hundred thousand years, although most experts seem to disagree with classifying this as art. What we at least have are the early stages of innovation.
Prehistoric art refers to artifacts that predate writing and have no existing records from other cultures explaining it, and ancient art refers to artifacts from cultures with some form of writing or records pertaining to it. The Chauvet Cave located in France, contain some of the best preserved prehistoric cave paintings in the world, with radiocarbon dating putting some of the paintings at over thirty thousand years old. The Minoan civilization, known for their paintings, pottery, jewelry and metal vessels, flourished on the island of Crete from about 2700 to 1400 BCE. They have a far reaching influence in ancient art, that includes ancient Egypt through trade, and the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece, who absorbed the Minoan culture after it’s decline around 1100 BCE.
In its most stripped down form, art is about freedom for the artist as well as the art appreciator. Freedom to express oneself or receive expression, however anyone wants to. Art form needs no explanation. 100% creative control is non-conformism, 0% creative control is conformism with a whole spectrum in between. Competitiveness brings on a paradox in that it doesn’t make sense to compare one work of art to another, when each one is supposed to be its own expression. From this point of view all art is created equal, because their qualities are based on what they’re achieving, instead of what they’re not. It’s only after a style movement happens, that rules come into play for that particular art form. Artists can be rated on how well their technical ability achieves what they’re trying to do. The opinion of the masses create popular art and the trained critic’s opinion comes from a small percent with an expertise in art form. Other influential opinions come from people who are willing to pay millions of dollars for art, but not everyone will agree that means it’s the best. Then there’s the bigger picture beyond human understanding, perhaps God’s opinion.
In our current times if you enter a contest for some form of art or try to appeal to someone in the business that could provide opportunity, the opinion of the judges or the business person are obviously important in those particular moments, but remember in the end, opinions only speak for the individuals making them. Art form also usually suffers when it becomes about the money. One reason for this is, the business of anything wants no risk situations and that means giving people more of what’s already working. This is when art form becomes a product. With music for example, what we’ve seen time and time again is supply does not meet demand, because there will be complete saturation of the popular style. Creative wells dry up and as a result, quality diminishes. Another problem with only doing more of what has already been done is that pioneering gets suppressed.
In the most extreme sense being an artist isn’t just about whether someone puts paint on canvas, plays an instrument, sculpts or work with any other particular medium. It’s about how an artist eats, sleeps, and dreams creativity; everything they do is an artistic expression. It’s in the way they get out of bed, the way they make a meal and eat it, the way they have conversation and the way they deal with whatever comes their way in the course of a day. This is when art defines who we are as individuals.
“In the early stages of creation of both art and science, everything in the mind is a story.”
E.O.Wilson (1929- )
Art and science are interconnected by creativity and this is the driving force in all discipline fields. It’s also been shown that people with a music class in their daily curriculum do better in their other classes. While people are being artistic, they’re usually experiencing a higher level of brain functioning and this can help achieve things other than art.
From prehistoric creativities to modern films, art has been a portal for concepts, storytelling and the conveying of human relationships with their environment, world and universe. Art is the expression of humanity.
“The noblest art is that of making others happy”
P.T. Barnum (1810-1891)
