Profound Way Of Looking At Art: The Essence And Function

What is Art

There is no one universal definition of art, because there have been sets of exchange in the definition of art through the time. Art is completely relative where a lot of people get into many debates about if a thing considered as art or not. Therefore, it is extremely interesting to know about art from two different sides; from the perspective of someone who consumes art and from someone who creates art.

Most people define art as “The application of human creativity and imagination in various branches of activities such as painting, sculpture, literature, dance and music. ” In other words, art is a glamorous, enchanting, and meaningful object created with human creativity and ingenuity. However, art has undoubtedly deep meaning than stating an opinion or a feeling. Today’s art and artists are scientifically inspired by reality than by the fundamental properties of that reality such as shapes, colors and beauty.

Nowadays, art for art’s sake is insufficient. Moreover, it is the importance of another kind of art which is socially and culturally engaged art. Many artists defined art in the realm of that importance such as:

• “Art is the queen of all science communicating knowledge to generations of the world. ” Leonardo Da Vinci.
• "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. " Pablo Picasso.
• "Art is the signature of civilizations. " Jean Sibelius.

To have a much more profound way of looking at art the question is, what is the essence of art and what does art function for?

At present time, artists working in the socio-cultural realm use different mediums to express themselves from traditional mediums such as painting and sculpture to video, audio, poetry and installation to deal with key question such as human rights, migration, mobility, environment, cultural identity and the commons and the whole of such issues.

Art is very complicated to be categorized what it is and how it functions, that it is ungraspable value. Therefore, it is difficult to quantify how art affects common people, because it works in ambiguous latent and very subtle ways. In more simplified words, art is a medium of communication between people where they can express their thoughts and feelings. Art is subjective, yet its role opens up horizons but beyond those which are familiar to us. Art affects the world on the micro level not the macro. Consequently, it has vibrant interruption based on many aspects such as culture, society, politics, environment and personal perception.