Have you ever stared at a painting, wondering what it meant? Or seen a structure and wondered about the precision of the fine carvings? Doesn’t it all seem confusing? A thousand questions flood the mind. What was the artist/creator thinking? Where did he get such an idea from? He must have spent only his whole life perfecting each tiny stroke.
Art is the experience of the mysterious and expression of the imagination. Art is communication, it might not use words but speaks louder than words ever can.
There are different types of art: painting, architecture, sculpture, photography are visual arts. While music, film, dance and theater are classified as performing arts. Literature is also included in the broader definition of art. Art is to attribute emotions and feelings on a canvas, an action that speaks without words. In performing arts, humans represent the emotion, trying to build a bridge between the performer and the viewer in a way that both feel the essence of it.
Art is a free zone. It provides space to let go of inhibitions, it is an expression used for inquiry of the thoughts within, hiding below layers of blood and flesh.
In the course of the evolution of art, it was much appreciated by the kings and royals. Common man had no representation in the arts. After the revolutions and world wars, came a time of defiance and fight for freedom, many of which found its manifestation in art. When the very idea of human existence was questioned after the despaired life of continuous war. People arose with a new sense of realization of how conforming to ideas wasn’t feasible anymore and they dwelled into their own understanding of things. For example, when Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, it was a step of resisting the ideology, for then, only royals where painted of and commoners had no social rights towards any such art. It was the initiation of avant- garde arts.
When you sit in an opera or visit a ballet or even visit a exhibition, you feel a sense of complete displacement. We would rather spend more time with our various gadgets and we don’t appreciate the depth of the arts anymore. Through abstract imagery, there are great truths revealed, those thought by great minds which are liberating and help let go of any sense of inhibition.
As I stood observing a painting of different colors, I was unable to figure out the many reasons for such displaced unshaped figures but somehow they seemed to fit together- like the chaos and confusion in life that just somehow seems to makes sense.
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, for however dull it may seem, shades of grey are also art. Art is an internal appreciation of balance and harmony, and therefore an introspection of being human beyond purpose.