Free Essay On The Views On Modern Art

One of the distinctive features of the 21st-century world is that it is full of good, products, services, suggestions, etc. Everything is in abundance and works of art are not an exception. And when the world presents countless number of pieces of art every year, when creativity starts to be one of the most popular ways of activity, thereby allowing anyone to produce something that he considers as art, then it becomes hard to explain in one sentence what modern art is. Although the common, “scientific”, definition of art remains the same – “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power” (Oxford Dictionaries “Art”) – sense of it has been changing over the decades. In this sense, street graffiti, for instance, is considered to be an art today, photography or advertising are an art as well.
The difficulty of understanding what art means for our place and time is exacerbated by modern process of commercialization in many spheres of human activities. Art has mostly become commercialized, that is why the initial imagination of how genuine art should look like is distorted. Nevertheless, it will not be mistake if art in its modern understanding is defined as type of human activity, which presuppose making works of art with the help of author’s creativity, imagination and extraordinary view on simple things. Art today is the ability to find something special in common things. On the other hand, art today is still something that carries spiritual and aesthetic significance for society and is intended to awaken inspiration and love for the great in people’s minds and hearts. As for me, that is why truly great works of art, or masterpieces, should include both elements of art: the artwork’s purpose (function) and the aesthetic appeal (form). As long as these two features are in harmony with each other in the work of art, it can be safely considered as perfect work.
Meanwhile, it is a little harder to determine whether “readable” artwork is better than “unreadable”. I consider that it is important for those who appreciate art to value the composition when its content and sense are readable and understandable. On the other hand, I think that any piece of art might contain a secret or mystery as well, so that the viewer may not understand the initial purpose of the artist, but he can think out his own sense. In this sense, it is acceptable for me to appreciate “readable” artworks and to give my own meaning to some mystery and “unreadable” works and enjoy them as well. And if both understandable and mysterious artworks are good for me, then the choice between creativity and imitation can be only one. The essence of art is in its creativity and in soleness, or exclusiveness, of every artwork. To my mind, art does not tolerate imitation, repetition or clichés since creative artist himself should be exclusive and extraordinary in his style, manner and vision. Surely, artwork may repeat, for example, the technique of previous works of art; however, it should also contain something principally new and unknown in order to impress its audience.
Speaking about three most important function of art, I would like to determine that they are as follows: assisting us in rituals that promote our spiritual or physical well being; communicating thoughts, ideas, and emotions; educating us about ourselves and the world around us. I have chosen these three functions because they perform the main goal of art, its supreme goal to permeate people’s consciousness and subconscious in order to involve them into the higher idea of creativity, show them the meanings of things and educate them about the most complicated issues of the world around. As for me, art can have an abstract character, it does not have to be formulaic, well-defined or clear – that are the functions of science. Art as such communicates with people’s emotions, souls; it turns to spiritual and irrational parts of human, and seeks for answers to difficult questions in these parts.
The epochs of the Baroque, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Romanism are way behind, and nowadays they are replaced by other trends and followings in art. As a rule, modern art is simplified and serves more as entertainment or way of making money rather than performs its initial and principal goals. However, this opinion is personal and subjective. To be objective, it needs to be said that modern art have its own, new purposes and views on world and society. In order to evaluate today’s art the general cultural and social processes should be taken into account. Since era of pop and mass culture has influenced on music, literature or cinematography, it became the part of art as well. For instance, popular art and Kitsch have emerged and become an important part of new art. As for me, the boundaries between these two movements are quite blurred; pop art mainly intersect with kitsch – they both use the images and elements of popular culture (comic books, advertising, films, singers) in the context of irony and amplification. However, the difference between pop art and kitsch lies in critics’ perception of them. Andy Warhol’s collages cost millions dollars, while kitsch is considered to be a low-quality art at an affordable price. Shelley Di Capri, the journalist of BBC, writes about kitsch: “Kitsch is fake art, expressing fake emotions, whose purpose is to deceive the consumer into thinking he feels something deep and serious, when in fact he feels nothing at all.” (Capri “A Point of View”)
Better situation is with fine art and craft. These types of art presuppose author’s creativity, extraordinariness and individual’s vision. Moreover, both of them seek to affect people’s aesthetic tastes and feelings. Craft initially is a profession that includes some kind of specific skilled work; that is why today when mass production has corrupted the world and mass markets suggest plenty of goods at affordable prices, craft has become more valuable and costly as a result. Craft today can indeed be considered as art in its common understanding, and along with it fine art, in my opinion, is also close to the original meaning of great art. Fine art is connected with artist’s self-expression, his own imagination on how the world works, what is important in people’s life, and what is the truly mission of art. It often expresses the reaction to significant and current social, political, cultural events; it turns to philosophy and spirit as well. One of the main purposes of such art is to cause strong emotions since there is no place for neutrality or indifference in the world of art. And as long as humanity has, and makes, such art – emotional, meaningful, strong, and comprehended, - the spiritual and moral part of people will never stop its existence, development, and perfectioning.

Works Cited

Oxford Dictionaries. “Art”. Oxford University Press. Web. 09 Feb. 2015.
Capri, Shelley D. “A Point of View: The Strangely Enduring Power of Kitsch.” BBC. BBC, December 12, 2014. Web. 09 Feb. 2015.