Can Art Change the Way We View the World

The thought of art is more than what you see it is what you feel and what you learn from looking at it. Art can heal the soul and create and new outlook on images we may see every day. Sadly, we may not always see the art in things, pieces, or, humans.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but maybe they are worth far more than that. Pictures, although seemingly simple in nature, are extremely complex. Far too often, people overlook what a picture truly is. When a person looks at an image, they most likely see only the image, nothing else. Many people do not look deep enough into an image to fully comprehend the true meaning of it. However, when an individual begins to truly study an image in an attempt to understand the true complexity of it, they will be surprised at what they overlooked before. As stated by French Realist Painter, Gustave Courbet, “Fine art is knowledge made visible.”

Art is not just a picture on a wall or in a museum, art comes in many forms. It can be a song you just heard, a video you watched, or a painting you saw in a gallery. Also, art can be just text. All forms of art grasp you in different ways and make your thoughts evolve to new distances. Art can bring you feelings you did not think you had. You can perceive the art in many ways and the creator wants it to influence you. I believe that yes, at can truly influence society and inform human behavior. While it may seem to some that pictures, songs, and videos influence you the most, it is actually true that books are the most influential and informative because they get in touch with your mind and emotions.

According to Mandel, art reminds us that we’re human. It is a subconscious human instinct, even “in the midst of catastrophe” (Knopf).

A tessellation is a pattern put together by identical shapes that fit together perfectly with no gaps or overlaps. M.C. Escher is the man who created the idea of tessellations, who is a Dutch graphic design artist. He had a very tough early life since he suffered from very common skin infections, which in turn caused him to do very poor in his core curriculum. Although he was very bad in his main subjects, he excelled in his music and art classes. As an artist, M.C. Escher began by drawing landscapes primarily of nature. After a few years of this, he decided to go in a different variety of art by using the dimensional planes to his advantage to create illusions and trick the eye. He would sketch landscapes of Italy from very unique perspectives that alter reality, later he would sketch artwork from his mind rather than looking at nature. His form of artwork is commonly referred to as “impossible reality”. He mainly worked with lithographs and woodcuts, lithograph is an

     Art, in each and every form that it comes in, shows us who we are. Our

As onlookers peer into the artworks in front of them, there is no question as to whether or not they considered what the artwork means, where it came from and what the artist was interested in who created it. The

Throughout the vast history of art, historians can find connections throughout the centuries. Artists from the beginning of humankind have been inspired by the world around them. From the Apollo 11 stones to present day, history and culture have provided inspiration and have been the focus of various pieces. Examining artwork from the 15th-18th century, viewers can be shown a whole world that would be unknown to us without these artist’s contributions. History, religion, and cultural events have sculpted the art world, and we can observe this through many pieces during the 15th-18th centuries.

For over two thousand years, various philosophers have questioned the influence of art in our society. They have used abstract reasoning, human emotions, and logic to go beyond this world in the search for answers about arts' existence. For philosophers, art was not viewed for its own beauty, but rather for the question of how art and artists can help make our society more stable for the next generation. Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived during 420-348 B.C. in Athens, and Aristotle, Plato’s student who argued against his beliefs, have no exceptions to the steps they had to take in order to understand the purpose of art and artists. Though these two philosophers made marvelous discoveries about the existence of art, artists, and

Art is simple. Art is complex. Art is everything. Take a moment, everyday, to find art in the surrounding world. By doing this simple task, the understanding of art emerges. This

Art is an object or piece of work that brings one pleasure. Art is also something you see or feel and you cannot even begin to describe the ways you like it or how it makes you feel. Art is something that portrays beauty and happiness. Art lets you see the world through another person’s perspective. Most art seems to tell a story about where a person has been and the things they have encountered along the way. It lets you connect with the artist and see things through their eyes. Art is a way of expressing one’s self without words. When I think of art, I think of paintings, portraits, sketches, and sculptures.

Creating art is one of the single defining factors that set humans apart from animal species. Through art, humans are able to express their innermost ideas and feelings, without having the difficulty of trying to find the correct words to accurately describe their thought processes. Works of art can help us to understand the people who have come before us. This is evidenced by the knowledge humans have discovered of prehistoric men and their symbolic cave paintings. The expression, style, and meaning vary and archaeologists put in much effort to uncover these works.

Arthur C. Danto in “The Artworld” provides us with the argument that, “To see something as art requires something that the eye cannot descry-an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” Danto shows us the importance of the artworld in order to know that a work of art is more than just what we can plainly see. Danto provides two theories he calls the “IT” (Imitation theory) and the “RT” (Reality theory). With these two theories, Danto explains how we can define art and why “The Artworld” is needed to help understand art, because after all, “these days one might not be aware he was on artistic terrain without an artistic theory to tell him so.”

Perception is quite an important piece in real life as well. The power of perceptions is amazing how it can actually help one or bring one down. One has the power to determine the response from events. “Perceptions begin when the human brain receives data from the body’s five sense.” (Enayati, A., 2012, p.2). An example that demonstrates how perception is able to help is Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who lived three years in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Frankl became aware that he had only one freedom during that time which was the freedom to determine his response for a sorrowful truth. To imagine is to have the power to decide the response to events. Frankl decided that he would image seeing his wife, teaching students about what happened during the Holocaust, and the lessons learned while being in camp.

Art is a catalyst of change. It can confront both social and political issues as well as providing people with a creative outlet in which they can express their innermost thoughts and feelings - but what effect can art have on our society as a whole? Artists today have the unique ability to connect with people in a creative, innovative way that they can understand and interpret themselves. With this ability, artists are able to express their own views as well as influencing the views of others. Art is an immense part of our world – so much so that we barely even consider its impact upon us – but just how significant is the work of artists in our modern day society?