Is Art Important?

Is art important?

Counterquestion: What would we be without art?
What would we be without paintings, books, music, films, operas, plays, fashion, bouquets of flowers, cooked creations?
We wouldn't have any culture and and wouldn't know what to do with our money in our spare time.

Hanging up a work of art or a photo at home and living with this piece of art is enjoyable, inspiring, gives us something to talk about with interesting and boring guests likewise, decorates our walls, and lets us explore our individual taste which we then can exhibit for others to marvel at.

Art connects us to our humanity, to ourselves, lets us feel and experience.
 

Friedrich von Schiller
 

As much as joy is part of our human experience so is pain. Art shows us that we're not alone in our pain and in our joy. And maybe it can show us ways to cope with the pain or lets us share our joy with others.

Are brings us into balance and can complement what is missing in us.

Entire countries have fallen in love with a particular style of art attempting to bring balance to society. France, for example, in the late 1800s appreciated the art of Jacques-Louis David, who was an exponent of classism with its clear and simple, sometimes strict design vocabulary being a total opposite to the decadence and sensuality of rococo, which had reigned beforehand.

Also, England in the 19th century discovering the pre-Raphaelite whose colorful, close-to-nature work was a great contrast to the brutal effects of the industrialisation.

Among others art is witness, path-shower, healer, therapist, propaganda, lover, conscience, and job-creator.

Is art important?

Every culture has art. Art allows us to be complete beings because expressing oneself artistically is a fundamental human behavior, just like laughter or language.

Art keeps us sane and healthy, since it stimulates or calms our mind. It helps us to express ourselves where words fail to do so. "If one could express it with words, there would be no reason to paint." Edward Hopper

Art tells us our history. Our personal history as well as history shared as a collective.

And art brings us together in order to have a shared experience.

Picasso was once asked by a German soldier in Paris whether he was the one who painted Guernica, icon of political art. Picasso answered: "You painted this picture, not me."

Likewise, the türkish artist Zehra Dogan answered the judges whether she painted the painting depicting turkish flags decorating destroyed houses in a Kurdish distric: "You painted this picture, not me." Currently she is serving two years and 10 month in jail.

Art must be allowed to be, live, and breathe - for the highest good of all.

At the opening of the Documenta14 in Athens:

"Finally! Finally simply nothing but art", said the elderly lady from Athens, standing in awe on the Syntagma-Plaza. "...something that has nothing to do with the crisis."

Is art important?