The truth is that a few people feel that art is not necessary anymore, however, the life they live, the ways they adopt, are art in itself. Art is the way of life. As it has been for a thousand years. The problem with saying that art is valueless, might lie in the fact that art is not always valued when it's made. Nobody told Da Vinci that his musings and doodles would be one day kept in private art galleries. Art is like math, when somebody discovers a formula, they don't necessarily do it to solve a problem. Of course, when it does solve a problem a couple hundred years later it creates a lot of fame for its finder. The same is true for art. While Mozart may have been famous in Europe for his concerts at the time, he could not possibly have known that he would one day be regarded as the Einstein of Music.That is the beauty of art, it enhances over time, the more you ponder in it, the more it will give you.
Art has existed, and will continue to exist, albeit in different forms for as long as the human brain continues to differ from animals. Art gives life a purpose, without it, it's just a boring cycle of day to day troubles. Art, beauty, love, allows us to make sacrifices, to follow passions and to chase dreams. Without art, we would never have the incentive to do anything out of the ordinary. Art allows us to be creative, allowing us to advance at a speed far ahead of other species. Art gives beauty to the otherwise mundane horizon.
Art is nothing but human memories encoded into a format that can be plainly read by anyone. Colors can express what sentences can’t, tunes can be felt by the heart, and shapes can say what words will not. Art isn't just necessary, it's a part of us. Art doesn't just mean the paintings that hang on the walls of the Louvre and the harmonies bouncing off Broadway, it can mean anything, from the crude painting hanging on the fridge to the uneven tunes muffled out by the roaring subway.
Art is the window into the soul. Art and creativity are the only unique element in human beings. We share every single aspect of our lives with animals, plants and other beings, yet we are the only species on earth to dabble in art. Art is nothing but a record of memories, feelings, expressions, and opinions. We paint scenes that we’d like to remember, we create harmonies that remind us of good times, we compose poetry that express our feelings and opinions. Art is a window into the collective history of human beings.
So, the question isn’t “is art necessary?” It is rather, “Is life worthwhile without art?” and I would like to answer this as John Keating puts it quite nicely, in the movie “Dead Poets Society”,
“And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
Comments