What is Art? — Sara Kramar

Art is fun, weird, insightful, shocking and beautiful but what exactly is it?

Sometimes its message is clear, striking us immediately, like a physical impact. Sometimes we need to dig deeper to uncover its intention. Sometimes its story is simple and elegant, other times, confusing or clumsy.

We are often first introduced to art as being representational, for example a landscape painting or someone’s portrait. You may have fond memories drawing your home, family or favourite things as a child. In this context, we see art as an expression of our reality, showing a single frame of our environment.

But, what happens when art goes beyond representation? Art allows us to depict emotions that sometimes we cannot articulate or even describe. Looking at Edvard Munch’s ’The Scream’ we can immediately identify with the emotion communicated without words. We feel it before we try to describe it. Munch paved the way to create a visual language for the human condition, inspiring movements that followed.

“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”

— Edvard Munch

Art is a platform on which we construct our ideas, our desires and our fears. According to Salvador Dalí, surrealism "destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision". Surrealist artists Salvador Dalí and René Magritte experimented with objects and materials disrupting our familiar reality with often surprising and shocking results. They created dreamscapes and juxtapositions never seen before, often confusing the viewer.

Pivotal female artists such as Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois examined relationships with life, death and identity. Demanding questions were being explored through art, not to offer an answer but to raise the voices of those asking and challenging.

“I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.”

— Frida Kahlo

Art opens a dialogue to social, economic, political and cultural concerns by raising awareness and challenging the status quo. One of the most powerful political statements made through art is Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’. Showing the tragedies of war, this artwork has become an embodiment of peace and an anti-war symbol. Controversial sculptor and installation artist, David Černý, creates provocative statement pieces that directly investigate themes of the political climate and other social issues of the 20th and 21st centuries.

“Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”

— Pablo Picasso

Art can be propaganda typically created by a movement, political body, religious or higher institutions. It is the illustration of enforced beliefs and ideas that are oversimplified, creating a “good/us vs bad/them” story or a powerful symbol. Political agendas may be what first come to mind, this is not surprising with the volume of propaganda exploding in the 20th century. However, if persuasion is central to propaganda, who else might we consider trying to influence us today?

Che Guevara (1968) by Jim Fitzpatrick. Source — Che Guevara (1968) by Jim Fitzpatrick. Source

Art is a reflection of the society in which it is created. It provides insights to what is important to people, the hardships we face, the battles we overcome. Francisco Goya explored a new way of looking at war from the perspective of the victim not the victor. Méret Oppenheim examined female identity, sexuality and exploitation through humour and eroticism. At the time, her assembly of everyday domestic objects with unlikely alliances provoked bemusement, offence and fascination. Art challenges us to (re)think and (re)act.

“It’s the artists who do the dreaming for society.”

— Méret Oppenheim

Ultimately, art is a response to our experiences within our environments. Art is instinctive, intuitive, and expressive which is why it offers so many unique perspectives with universal messages. It allows us to make our mark on this world, to let others know we were here and to share our values and our ideas. Art can tell us, who we are.

Art is life.