Eva Iofe Week 2: Why is Art Important to Society
Nowadays, art can be seen everywhere, from computer graphics to online museum tours. Historically, however, it was a lot harder to produce physical artworks (be it statues, or paintings, or stained-glass pieces, or computer-generated works) due to the lack of far-reaching mass production of artistic resources. Neither time period's works of art, however, are less valuable than the other. During the Renaissance, people gradually moved away from old-fashioned, medieval values, instead paving the way for modern art and sciences. In the twenty-first century, art can still make a statement, as widespread as it is. From spray paints to markers, many new mediums of art emerged post-Renaissance, but the one thing that makes art valuable to society is how timeless it is. Existing since the very beginnings of time, art was used to record stories on walls by cavemen, and after the printed paper had become normalized in society, comics gradually appeared. These mediums brought people together and lasted hundreds of years. Math and Science may be important to advancing the Human Race, but art is just as valuable for forming meaningful connections with each other.
People have connected through music or poetry as well, both widespread forms of art that can be traced back centuries into the past. From love poems to ballads to tragic plays, humanity has always created art for someone, either themselves or others, and it made communities thrive.
What is your all-time favorite piece of art (e.g. A comic book or the Mona Lisa), and did it impact your life in any way?
Art has been a key part of many cultures and has been used to portray a plethora of customs and ideals. People painted and carved into walls of cave and pyramids at the beginning of recorded human history. Then they created a more thought out form of paint and learned to carve human figures into stone. Eventually they learned how to create well made clothes and used color as a status symbol since certain colors like green and purple were less common and, therefore, more desirable. Mush later in history when art became a lot more mainstream it was used to spread propaganda and ideals. So art has been affecting the human way of life and the structure of society since we were cavemen. However, it hasn't always been in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteI love that art is a way that society can express themselves and put their feelings into tangible pieces. My favorite piece of art is The Kiss by Gustav Klimt because I love the colors and how the people almost flow into the background.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite art piece of all time would have to be the painting done by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I didn’t think anything of this piece though until I saw it in person. To be able to see the vast amount of area covered by detailed painting is amazing and for it to have been done in such a short time really made me wonder what us humans are capable of.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you used historical context to highlight your point. My favorite art piece is Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. This piece inspired my personal art style and the way I paint. Art is a form of expression, and the impact it has on our society is grand.
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