Art - What Is The Point?

Introduction

I hear so many people criticising all forms of art because it’s not exactly what the want or expect, they expect some kind of personal perfection or else it is dismissed and rubbish or worse still irrelevant or even worse it is just ignored. Art should never be ignored.

I used to know someone who had two measures for absolutely everything, “Too Much” or “Not Enough” , everything and everyone they criticised was one or the other of those two states, so nothing was ever good enough for them.

I follow the critic Jerry Saltz on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and he often comes up with pertinet and often funny observations on the nature of Art:

So What Is The Point Of Art?

I was not sure I could provide examples but without them my arguments may fall a little flat, my main areas of art appreciation are music, painting, film and theatre and writing although something else will crawl out of the woodwork and that is the point of art, to surprise us and make us think.

In my opinion the point of art is to have an effect, nothing more and nothing less. Art MUST have an effect. If it doesn’t then it has failed.

So many people will dismiss a piece of art with “That’s rubbish” or “A child could do that” or “I could do that”. The thing, especially with the last argument is that they didn’t do that, but the art has succeeded because it has affected the viewer and caused a response and that is the point of art.

We see so many pieces of art that polarise views, take Anthony Gormley’s “Angel Of The North” for example. It caused a lot of hate and disdain with people seeing it a Nazi brutalist art. When I first saw it I was driving back to Newcastle and it was night and I thought “What The Hell!!??”.

It is brutalist in form, but when I looked at it I thought any school child could make their own “Angel Of The North” with a figure, a ruler and an elastic band or two, and over the years it has become an iconic piece of art that welcomes you to North East England despite the initial reticence to accept it.

Check out Gormley's other work here, so hate it and some love it. I have seen many of his installations and am firmly in the latter camp.

This is a piece of art that I did, and everyone could do this and many will dismiss it as rubbish, but it will affect everyone who sees it so it is art.

Easy Art vs Hard Art vs Complex Art

For many pop music is easy art, they hear something they like and that's enough. Classical paintings and statues are also easy to be satisfied with because they are part of the standard beauty spectrum although artists like Bosch were more than disturbing. Then there is John Martin who's huge religious paintings show us fear and wonder.

William Blake seemed to run the whole gamut of art and writing for beauty to surreal, and "The Tyger" is one of my favourite poems that I have ever read combining reality and surreality.

Image taken from The Morgan Library & Museum

Conclusion

These are just a few of my observations on what Art is and why it is so important. You may disagree with me, you may think my views are invalide, or you may agree with me, either may this little piece of Art has succeeded.

Music is Jah Wobble's take on the William Blake poem "The Tyger".