August 28, 2009
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What is the Purpose of Art?
I received the following message from Chocolatecoveredkittens:
“I’m planning on doing a series of intro to photography blogs, and I wanted to start with, well, an introduction, duh. I wanted to ask if I could request a question on your blog? I wanted to ask “what is the purpose of art?” I’m curious as to what the general public thinks of that.
- Bek”
What is the purpose of art?
Comments (96)
To entertain and open people’s eyes to a whole new world.
for me, self-expsession….and to make a statement
Expression, subversion, love, hate, fun, money. Just because we can. Why does it matter? Not to sound bitter, legitimate question.
Nice choice of picture.
to get laid
To express; my writing is like that. Just to express and be beautiful. Invoke emotions, memories, places. Ha.
Self expression. To share and form new ideas creatively and in a way that makes others think and open their minds.
Expression; you can express yourself through art that you can’t do through words sometimes. you can be creative and just let your hand flow through it and make something beautiful out of something that might not be too beautiful.
it gives you a chance to show how you feel; instead of telling.
@ChocolateCoveredKittens - Indeed. I’ve often considered the purpose of torture porn which tries to pass itself off as “art”.
Something created by someone, that provokes feelings, emotions in those looking at it. That start there is more.
to titilate.
tittilate?
Anyway, it is to spark feeling, reaction. Even if that feeling or reaction is very brief.
Expression, hobby, relaxing, memories.
Self-expression. Doesn’t have much practical application but we need to be able to express ourselves.
Expression. DUH.
Wth…lol easiest question asked today
Illustrating a different point of view to the world, to get people to think, and to understand different sides of a situation. Thank God, I thought this was going to be a post on the frivolities of art, because I already hear it too much. I would have whooped your ass. Or, cried in my closet, then subsequently painting a morbid picture on my canvas…
The purpose of art is to express what we can’t express with words. To create beauty. To show something in a way that it hasn’t been shown before. It is all those things, but most of all, the purpose is to show our souls, to connect with our deepest longings, our deepest fears…
for those who have nothing better to do to pretend to understand something that no one else can….
To make things look interesting and cost more.
@AFS90 - LOL, word.
I think it’s a way to release all that crazy inside of us. . .
Art is something special, unique and intuitively different to each individual. In my mind, Art is an extension of self, being of many different intents, contents, mediums, and meanings. It is a small splashing out of your soul and essence for the world around you to see.
Something for those sappy liberals to waste money on while the rest of us are working hard.
To inspire, to bring beauty into creation.
@NikBv - And that too.
To say something without using words.
art sets us apart from other lifeforms on earth. creativity, individuality, as many colors in art as the rainbow and each piece is different. i haven’t seen a bird build a three-story condo yet and my cat hasn’t started oil painting so it’s nice to be human. if everything started with creation, then wouldn’t creativity actually be the most powerful thing on earth? ♪
@AFS90 - Co-sign!
self expression, to make a statement
There isn’t a point.
To capture a feeling in a way normal words can’t express (not that writing can’t be art) or to show an aspect of humanity that isn’t normally talked about or understood.
Woah, I just blogged about this.
To inspire thought and portray and appreciate beauty.
it’s something to jerk your meat to.
like science, writing, religion, the ultimate purpose of art is to seek the Truth.
art has no purpose unless you need to make a living doing/creating/articulating it
HEY…… I didn’t say art wasn’t important
I think the purpose of art is to evoke emotion and to communicate. Expression through a creative means.
Partly expression, partly as something to share with others
To show emotions through art, give a perspective, make someone think and see beauty
couldnt really think of the right words and im no artist so theres my interpretation of the purpose of art
Depends entirely on the author and the reader, I mean, no one set purpose. I like to interpret music, photography, and poetry in ways that make my understanding of it unique. Motion pictures and stories obviously tend more towards entertainment. But they do share one quality, and that is offering a different perspective to the viewer for their judgment.
to express emotion, intellect, the world around. To create something for oneself about oneself. To share experiences, thoughts, opinions, dreams, visions. It’s communication using lines, shapes, colors, textures, space…..
Expression, and to provoke though, imo.
Some of it, allows idiots to get money from the government to support that which the market would reject.
art is an effort on the part of a creator to be something larger than he was before
Self expression
hot girls
Art is a format or form to express the natural, inner creativity of man.
I think if a real answer existed to that question, artists would be out of a job.
$0.02
Expression. Like writing it’s venting and saying what you can’t say through words, but through pictures. Because a picture is worth a thousand words.
To inspire creativity.
expression.
My daughter is an artist. She uses art to express what she is feeling at the moment. Like a novel — her art tells a story thru her eyes with the hopes that someone will be enlightened, entertained, or just plain happy to view it. I am biased, but she is quite an amazing artist.
To express yourself. To provoke thought. To be beautiful. To be different.
It changes from person to person, truly.
To give a reason for parents to fret that they’re wasting money on their children’s education.
To remind us of our humanity.
expression
To express oneself.
To express one’s feelings.
@ShamrockLover - right on!
i am an art nerd and nobody would have ever guessed it. and classical music too, oh love.
Something. It serves as a purpose in something. Like expression?
Art excites the mind.. it is to know what its like to be blind, and express that in something visual
I heard at my lovely new art school today that “one of the components of art is that it begins conversations”. Funny that you brought this up at the same time.
My take on it? The purpose of art is to stimulate ideas, and get you to think in beautiful ways. That makes conversations too.
To illuminate, imitate, degrade, exemplify, enhance, and everything-in-between life and all our perceptions of reality and fantasy. And so much more.
Expression, I guess.
Maybe just to make people feel
The purpose of art is to inspire and evoke feelings. It is different to each eye and to each heart.
First I think art needs to be defigned – Art has to have an artist, a process, a product and a viewer. And art has to have aesthetic value. But honestly - Art has no purpose. Also, craft is not art. There is an argument whether or not photography is art but right now I don’t know what it is.
The same as the purpose of everything non-essential to life: entertainment. Some people say “self-expression, but really, it’s self-entertainment. It is also entertaining for others. Seriously, have you ever looked at some of the “modern art”? Lol
Art is to create something that is a piece of you, while being apart from you. It defines a part of the creator.
Every. Single. Thing.
The purpose of art, in my mind, is to speak to people in a way that words cannot. It is a form of self expression, for whatever reason, a window into the soul of the artist. Though it may be for entertainment, it is still the voice of the artist, and usually says much about the person, whether beautiful, dark and depressing, amusing, or thought provoking in any way. It is meant to open the minds of others, and move them.
is that picture supposed to art??
art is a form of expression, yeah. it can be made to mean anything you want or bring across any message you want.
to me, art is controversy and chaos. it has to provoke a feeling of some kind in order to be art, and i think the best way to do that today is to create controversy.
like the blog about writing in the bible-it was meant to be a form of art, and people were told they could write what they wanted. that’s controversial-making it true art.
I draw some sketches.
Some of them are things I care about, and I guess it’s a feeling of immortalizing something I care about. Like my dog, as you can see in my profile picture.
And finishing a drawing gives me a sense of accomplishment.
to dilate your pupils!
To tell the truth.
art has no purpose. its a reflection of life, which means its nothing more then an experience meant to be enjoyed.
To express your inner-most thoughts and feelings.
Self-expression and to hone one’s talent.
Entertainment and expressing yourself and your opinion.
To answer that, one needs to go back….look at art over the centuries……: I would say art is something pretty, beautiful. Something that visually, silently, expresses something. It is always beautiful, Always…no exceptions. even beautiful as it is the ugliest thing you have ever seen….because its ugliness is its perfection (but that is just some art).
The purpose of art is that it defeats all purpose. You make art because you can.
You can do it to make a statement, to look beautiful, to horrify, to intrigue or just to make people think.
xxx
Oh.. and because we were made in Gods image, and he is a creator and thus made us to create as well.
It can be to create beauty, to make people think, or in the case of the guy who displayed runners at a museum and made millions, it can be to make money. Sometimes it’s just fun to create. And I’m sure at least a person or two do it so they can take it to the fair and get ribbons!!
people write and draw cause thats wat they feel
I guess we express our self through art.
When I draw it’s usually something dark and well I usually would feel depressed.
Express yourself.
to understand the meaning of life, for hobby, for expressing, for pleasure.
It’s part of Romanticism: Expression of the Self.
To hide the greyness.
All art: music, painting, photography, analog circuit design is communication, expression and creation.
For me, Art is getting the ideas rocketing around in my head onto paper/cardboard/wood/canvas so my mind can be still … until the next idea gets started zooming around. With my art, there isn’t any of that “muse” crap – it’s a switch. If the switch is on, I do artwork. If the switch is off, I do other things and don’t even think about art.
The purpose of art is not having any purpose.
“Art is a lie that reveals the truth”
It would take me too long to explain…the field of aesthetics in philosophy is complex and draws from so many other branches of philosophy. The simplest answer is that art is a way to show abstract values in concrete form–values selected by and stylized by the artist according to his own evaluations of how reality is. That’s pretty much it.
Any artist should understand that there is no absolute or clear purpose that could properly explain it’s intention. While some of us might like to pigeon hole the term into self expression, emotional outlet, or creating a message, it isn’t that simple. I tried to come up with an all encompassing purpose but, there simply isn’t such a thing. Honestly (and bluntly so), I imagine those who can detail the purpose if even for only them personally, without reaching for better phrasing shortly after, then again after that, probably shouldn’t be labeling themselves as an artist (or a person that understand art). The kind of passion and internal drive that fuels an artist would take a century to capture in text. Without true “artists”, the only purpose would be recognition and monetary gain and what they’ve created with only those factors would not be art. Did I mention that I also hate the term, artist. I only use it above for lack of a better term. It’s as annoying or more so than I guy who went to a boxing gym for 2 weeks calling himself a boxer.
I know, I know, blah blah blah
For me, art says those things you can’t put into words. When feelings are so strong you can’t explain it, or when it’s to painful to say out loud. You can put it on paper and it helps get it out so it’s not just bottled inside. The art is a part of the artist. You can’t make a good art piece without it meaning anything to someone otherwise what’s the point. It’s merly something that’s there for no reason and has no meaning. It wouldn’t say anything without meaning. A lot of the time art is hard to get unless you know what the feelings being conveyed are. Art is what you feel when you look at something. Its purpouse is to make you feel and help you understand what the artist was feeling.
to make money.
I think some people are born to create. They feel the need to be creative and come up with new things constantly. There has to be a reason for that, I think the world is supposed to be filled with art. Nature itself is art.