The Purpose of Art According to Picasso

Kevin Chung
2 min readNov 15, 2016

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“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” ― Pablo Picasso

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” ― Pablo Picasso

Every thought we have and every action we take shapes us as people. If you ask many people how they feel on Sunday, before the work week starts, you will often hear an audible groan. That feeling sticks with them until the very end of the week. Most of us are living for the weekend. Is this the way life was meant to be?

The industrialization of society has had a profound affect on civilization, for better or for worse. We are expected to be at work five days, for forty hours, every week.

Each day is a grind. Like clockwork, we arrive at work, go through the motions, then leave. It often feels like we coast through the day, watching our lives drift away.

Then we go home, watch some TV or play with the kids, and go right to sleep. Our routines have become boring and predictable.

What if we had a way to break from the mundane aspects of everyday life?

What if we had an outlet to express all our feelings? What if we had a way to break from the mundane aspects of everyday life? We do, and that outlet is called art.

Art allows us to express ourselves in a way that words can’t

Art allows us to express ourselves in a way that words can’t. We can pour our feelings onto a canvas, into a novel, or a into performance in ways that we normally can’t express.

Art provides an outlet for us to explore and play

Art provides an outlet for us to explore and play. Unfortunately, play has been relegated to children. Unfortunately, society tells us to grow up once we reach adulthood. Art allows us that arena for play.

One of the top books on Amazon is a coloring book for adults. People are overjoyed when they get the chance to create Newspaper Blockout poems. Improv is incredible fun when you are willing to just let go.

These forms of art allow people to let go of their fears, doubts, and ambitions. They allow you to simply play. We all confine ourselves into an imaginary box, a place where we have to be mature and proper.

Instead of letting society tell us how to live, we need to embrace art. We need to use it as an outlet of self-expression and experimentation. We are letting life getting in the way of living.

Photos by Abigail Keenan | Kaboom Pics | Boss Fight

This was originally posted on Marketing Your Art the Right Way.

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Kevin Chung

Teaching artists to market themselves. Lover of Design, Marketing, Culture, & all things Interresting. Find me at @kevin_chung and @whodesignedit