Themes And Purposes of Art

Categories: Art

Essay, Pages 14 (3355 words)

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Have you ever wondered about the different purposes of art and their importance? While some art depicts the views of the Artists culture or personal fantasy and imagination, others refer to the reality of life, such as religion, experiences of life and the process of which we all relate to. Some cultures still believe art and craft to be of one concept, using objects that reflect importance or belief. While most use canvases expressing ones self, either relating to personal imagination or portraying a fantasy, others depict reality or established religions.

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In many cultures, art is expressed through objects much like it is through images or architecture. However, they are of more value to the Artist than it is to viewers. For example, the art of basketry is portrayed as art by some cultures. The Pomo Indians believe these baskets are linked to larger meaning of the universe. Basketry has ritual significance, being made for honorable persons. For instance, great specific quality goes into making these baskets.

Carefully, the materials are sought out and chose to depict its value for the person it is specifically designed for.

Today, objects of daily life, expresses the extension of value to the architect or sculptor of the object. Moreover, large amounts of art in daily life is produced by industrial methods, yet, someone must still design them giving them a significant purpose. To see these as art, we could, for a moment, relate them to something specific in our life or beliefs. Otherwise, giving these objects of art credit as being art, without relating it to oneself, would make them seem benign pertaining to art.

Art is also expressed through inventions and fantasy. Much like poetry, Hieronyms Bosch's triptych of, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is expressed through painting and can bring an imaginary world to life as poetry does. Bosch's three-section panel depicts his own inventiveness of a fantasy. Another artist who creates from imagination conjuring up fantasy is contemporary artist, "Sandy Skogund". In her choice of art, she portrays images of reality with found objects and alters them into fantasy. In her piece, " Radioactive Cats", she displays imagination with designing this set with eerily glowing cats that seem to have been in a nuclear spill of some sort. Skogund's art is different than Bosch's, yet they are both designed to portray pure imagination of their own. However, opinion to fantasy art comes from ones imagination. Each piece pertaining to the inventiveness of fantasy can have different views depending on the perspective of the viewer.

Through art, our environment has been acknowledged and expressed through several artists. These artists have several different preferences for displaying their art for viewers. Thomas Cole's, " The Oxbow", places the viewer on top of a mountain in the New England countryside. Cole's piece certainly shows to be painted from a personal experience, a view in which he has seen. In this painting, Thomas Cole himself is being displayed, which in fact confirms his viewing preference. Although Cole's art displays nature from a fixed position, there are other artists who place the viewer at a different outlook. For instance, Wang Jian has portrayed his art piece, "White Clouds over Xiao and Xiang", from a view of mobility. In this piece, Jian places us directly above the landscape overlooking without a fixed position.

Both Cole's and Jian's painting have similarities of being art of nature, however, Cole's is created from a personal viewpoint in which he had seen in reality and gives us a sense of ownership. Jian's depicts a view of imagination, one of which the viewer is placed in midair allowing the viewer to seem as if they are able to move around from a different viewpoint. Jian's art piece also shows of being conjured from his own imagination and not a portrait in which one could imply ownership. Other arts of nature, such as the famed, " stone and gravel garden of Ryoan-ji" and Robert Smithson's, " Spiral Jetty", own specific qualities captured from earthwork. These are designed from nature itself, portraying its natural functions as art. Art of nature emphasizes our natural world and gives us a true picture that we could relate to.

Another form of art is created solely of the human experience. The human experience art relates to the process of life and its successes and hardships. All of us have in sometime experienced doubt and wonder, happiness and sorrow, loneliness and despair. Artists Rembrandt van Rijn, expressed his life through self-portrait.

Painting himself throughout the coarse of his adult life. In his paintings you can see him from his youthful adulthood to his success and failure in life, depicted from his appearance, to latter age. Another artist who relates paintings of human experience is, Christian Schumann. In Schumann's canvass, "Edible", you can see the identity of oneself almost as if it were a scrapbook. We can relate to these paintings on several different levels. Although we experience different things in our lives, we all have in common birth, hardship, success, love, old age and death. Art of the human experience allows you to look at ones self and their feelings and placing attributes of ownership in them.

Art of social order has brought about change in social injustices. Inspired by Society and their indifferences, artists have gone to great measures portraying statements for social order through their art. While there are many artists in this category of art, Honore Daumier's, " Murder in the Rue Transnonian", depicts one of great sadness. Daumier's bold choice to paint this chilling statement of political criticism caused him trouble with the authorities.

Daumier portrayed that of an entire family who was murdered by the civil guard. In contrast, "Murder in the Rue Transonian" was widely distributed and caused official wrath. Another chilling canvas is, "Guernica", by Pablo Picasso. Guernica was inspired by the brutalities of war. In this painting, Picasso expressed the view of war in the town of Guernica after being bomb. Art of social order has a valuable significance, capturing memorable happening in the world and bringing about truths to injustices.

The purpose of art pertaining to the sacred realm is to give concrete form to the unknown and abstract perceptions of ones established religion. The sacred realm cannot be seen with human eyes, therefore, artists have created images of gods, goddesses, angels, demons, and all manner of spirit beings. However, each piece of art created to depict an established religion has a storyline behind them. For example, the Sainte-Chapelle located in Paris, depicts art of the sacred realm. In contrast, the walls of Sainte-Chapelle depicts art of Christianity. The walls are made of stained glass in which light gleams through it in a way that is believed the glory of heaven seems closer. Art created for established religions or specific culture are beneficial to ones beliefs by bringing forth a form to relate to their religion or culture.

While there are many purposes of art, you can gather from here specific purposes. Here we have covered the purposes of, "Arts of Daily Life", "Invention and Fantasy", "Art and Nature", "The Human Experience", "Social Order" and " The Sacred Realm". All in all, there is meaning to each function of art. Whether it be pertaining to the Artist view or for the viewers imagination. Some are of importance to many while others are important to only the Artist or a specific culture.

Fashion and Art

A controversial debate that has existed for many years, and will probably still be argued for many years to come, is the relatively close relationship that fashion and Art has. People in both the fashion and art industries (or as some artists like to call: 'art world') have very mixed opinions and ideas on the collaboration of fashion and art and how one may influence the other in the industry we live in today.

“Art is Art and Fashion is an industry”, as quoted from in Michael Boodro's 'Art and Fashion' (2007), he believes that Fashion is just a 'man made' craze that has only been popularised by the many followers in public that are cloned to consume the ideas of fashion. Boodro also believes that “... fashion comes with no illusions attached” He believes that there isn't a depth to fashion as there is in art, he believes art is an academia with vast depths of knowledge involved as to fashion, which is a shallow and very monochrome in it's appearance, with no hidden messages.

He goes on to explain that the interest in fashions first started in the late 1800s/early 1900s when only the rich and wealthy could afford artwork, in a form of portraits, then these painters created elaborate fashions in this paintings, learning the art of drapery and how to portray fabrics in the best possible light, For example: “Gustav Klimt, portraits of women, 'designed' dresses that were more prominent than his subjects''.

Following on from this, Boodro then goes on to highlight some interesting links between art and fashion in how the artists has always formed the inspiration for the designer, such as: “Valentino has taken black and white geometric motifs from the Viennese artists Josef Hoffman and Koloman Mosen and embroided them in sequins and dresses” Many other examples there to highlight that a key to a designers success is by taking inspiration from previous art work by innovative and creative artists, which supports Boodro's opinion that fashion is a follower and a form of art.

“Clothes were placed in an extra-artistic sphere- where the most part they have remained”. This is taken from a contrasting piece of writing from 'Fashion and Art' by L. Svendsen (2006). As you can see, the Title 'Fashion and Art' is a reverse to Boodro's 'Art and fashion', this is because, as quoted above, Clothes (fashion) were placed in an 'extra-artistic sphere', meaning that he sees Fashion as a seperate category to Art, and not a branched off form of art itself.

Svendsen has a much more equal opinion for both sides of the opinion, he can pick out where Art and Fashion do merge into one, and also how Fashion has separated itself from art. He stated that in the early 1900's, Fashion was very limited and boundaries were strict due to “Freedom was rather restricted, as the creations had to appeal to the aesthetic preferences of the customer”.

Even though artists and art critics will strongly disagree that Fashion is a form of Art, even iconic designers such as Paul Poiret, one of the first iconic fashion designers of the early 20th Century stated “I am an artist, not a dressmaker”, designers hated how critics would limit their title to just a 'dressmaker', limiting their skills and talents instead of creative s that they dream to be acclaimed for.

Another controversial quote though from a famous designer, Martin Margiela who insists that “fashion is a craft, not art” Moving into the 1920s and 30s with the Cubism perception in artwork replacing realism, Fashion also in turn started to become more abstarct, and this was when Haute Couture was born, designs became more elaborate and the previous boundaries that existed were lifted, giving designers a vast playground in which they could experience with their work and ideas.

“Many Fashion Designers have used strategies normally associated with contemporary art rather than the world of fashion, by creating clothes that are better suited to exhibitions in galleries and museums than for actual wear”This shows a great link between fashion and art, it was evolving to become so abstract and outrageous that the best way for them to be displayed to their best potential was in galleries and museums, the same way as artwork would be, For example now in Museums such as the Victoria and Albert in London, there is now Fashion Archives, and many international designers have homed themselves there for one-off elaborate exhibitions.

To conclude I think that I would categorise Fashion as a form of art, but not a direct result of art, I think many people have similar opinions of the two because they are such broad topics with an almost unlimited amount of space for creativity. I do agree that some of fashions many successful collections and campaigns stemmed from the innovative ideas of previous artists but some of the more successful fashion moments have been solely down to the creative minds of the designer If I had to categorize the fashion industry and the Designers work, I would place it under craftsmanship and creativity, as previously quoted by Martin Margiela. To finalise though I believe that art and fashion shouldn't be labelled and the two should be able to intertwine to create magical and awe-inspiring pieces.