preview

The Importance Of Art And Its Influence On The World

Better Essays

Art is the expression or application of creative skill and imagination typically shown in a visual form such as in a painting or a sculpture. Art matters because it is not only used to express yourself, but to learn to identify the mental state of others. Humans have been making art since the beginning of time and art has become an important aspect of our society. There is art in almost every direction you look, so it is no surprise that art has had such a large influence on our society. It can impact what people think, how people feel, and what they do. Art reflects life. Therefore, art has played a large role in how we view specific historical events. It captures a country's culture during different time periods. Rembrandt, Rousseau, Monet, Georges Seurat, Hogarth, Whistler, Jan Steen, Frans Hal and Brueghel all illustrate the world as they see it from their generation. These artists have affected the future society by giving a brief, but comprehensive and imaginative depiction of everyday life. Pieter Bruegel the Elder often painted peasants, also known as the lower class. Thomas Eakins, the painter of The Gross Clinic, provided historians with clues and pictures of a vastly different way of life, showing us what the surgical theater looked like in the nineteenth century. Jan Steen’s The Eve of St. Nicholas gives us a way to revel in how Christmas was spent in the Netherlands during the early seventeenth century. In Georges Seurat’s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, shows the life of the higher class in the nineteen fifties. As you can see, art gives us an accurate view of life from a different time period, and a new perspective on historical events. Along with this, art can also give hope to carry on. Art has done more than just give us insight into the past, it has also encouraged people. For example, it has encouraged patriotism and national pride. In 1943, Norman Rockwell painted Four Freedoms, which is a series of four oil paintings based on president Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 speech “Four Freedoms”. In the speech, Roosevelt named four basic freedoms that Americans should strive for: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of wanting, and freedom of

Get Access