What is art ? 🎨 (665)

Tolstoy explains the definition of art to be rather personal to each individual. People can perceive art in different ways because of the experiences that they experience throughout their personal life. For example a painting to me may look like happiness and love because of the use of yellow paints and orange paints, while the same painting to someone else can look like pain and abandonment. Connections can be made by different images and expressions are controlled by individual concepts. “In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of intercourse between man and man. Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression” (Tolstoy, Ch. 5). When people create art they express whatever emotions that are present within themselves at the moment. If an artist is happy it is most likely possible for them to be painting happy images. If an artist is sad and or mad it is possible for that artist to paint something that expresses that emotion. When someone observes a piece of art it immediately affects them and that’s the connection that is made from the artist’s initial emotion. “Speech, transmitting the thoughts and experiences of men, serves as a means of union among them, and art acts in a similar manner. The peculiarity of this latter means of intercourse, distinguishing it from intercourse by means of words, consists in this, that whereas by words a man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits his feelings. The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. To take the simplest example; one man laughs, and another who hears becomes merry; or a man weeps, and another who hears feels sorrow. A man is excited or irritated, and another man seeing him comes to a similar state of mind. By his movements or by the sounds of his voice, a man expresses courage and determination or sadness and calmness, and this state of mind passes on to others. A man suffers, expressing his sufferings by groans and spasms, and this suffering transmits itself to other people; a man expresses his feeling of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love to certain objects, persons, or phenomena, and others are infected by the same feelings of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love to the same objects, persons, and phenomena. And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based” (Tolstoy, Ch. 5). Tolstoy explains the initial connection between the artist and the audience as intercourse. I can agree with this statement because artist do have to be in a vulnerable state to share an expression of emotion and when someone can relate to that emotion and understand it that vulnerability is shared. Emotion and art play hand and hand because it is an exchange of emotion. Tolstoy suggests that we apply the emotional standpoint to evaluate art because art is not art if there is no emotional connection between the artist and the audience. Personally I agree that this is a useful proposal because to me art is an expression of emotion and to connect to someone could make an impact and that could be the goal for an artist. The proposal is also useful because artists are very vulnerable and having someone to share that experience with is also positive and impactful.