Why People Create Art
Author: John Published Under: History
Art has incredibly deep roots and can be traced back to the beginning of humankind, where cavemen would paint pictures of hunts on the walls of their dwellings. The reason for making art varies greatly from person to person, with there being many different reasons for why people create art.
Art has often been important for telling a story, as much about traditional and making sure a cultures history lives on, as being aesthetically pleasing. It is common for a cultures artwork to show the values and principals that were important to them, as well as preserving history.
Often, the artwork is more of a symbol, such as an ancient tribal mask or even the ancient Egyptian Pyramids, which were designed to show the greatness of the Ancient Pharaohs. The Egyptians were not alone in this and to this day, people still create artwork to show a person's power or social status. For instance, many of the portraits commissioned by nobility during the middle-ages, were intended to show the magnificence of royalty.
However, in many cases, especially as our culture began to move away from tradition, artwork began to be more about the emotions or feeling of the artist. This is why it is important to spend time trying to discover the meaning of the artwork or the story that the artist was trying to tell, as this can help us learn to appreciate it. It is possible to observe what it was the artist wanted to show us about their subject, as well as what they did not want to show us.
In the end though, much of this interpretation is very personal and is based more upon our thoughts, emotions, and experiences than those of the artists. The reason for this is simply that artwork can not talk and, with the exception of current artists, most are no longer around to explain their work. Even if they are still around, they are under no obligation to explain it, which is one of the things that makes artwork so powerful, as we can project our feelings onto it.
There is plenty of written material that analyzes and helps explain artwork, so often this is an excellent place to start. Even in this case, though, it is important to always spend time considering the explanation and not take it at its face value, as often it is still simply the projected feelings of an individual.