“All Art is Quite Useless.”
When you question why you produce art, look to Oscar Wilde
Sometimes it’s hard to define why we make or view art. Literature, paintings, poetry, sculpture, haute couture, a song by Beethoven or Thom Yorke…what is the point, really? Why do we create it and why do we spend time engaging with it?
Art allows us to think at the highest level, with layers of ideas in a single creation speaking to each of us individually. Paradoxically at this high level, it may simply scream of unexplainable aesthetic beauty or create a strong response, whether disgust or joy.
But what is the purpose of art in the nature of our existence? As humans? As members of society or households? Where does art fit in when we talk about the components of a human life or what we need to stay alive?
ThoughtCo has a really nice discussion about the definition of art and includes this quote by Pablo Picasso: “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” That is, its definition is elusive in being defined by its ability to lift us up rather than by what it directly is.
And then in an attempt to (not) define art, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy begins with this statement in its entry “The Definition of Art”:
The definition of art is…
