insideKENT Magazine Issue 87 - June 2019 | Page 31

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
THE
ARTS
ISSUE
THE QUESTION ‘WHAT IS ART?’ CAN BE ANSWERED WITH ONE SIMPLE ADJECTIVE:
SUBJECTIVE. PRINTMAKER AND PAINTER, EDWARD HOPPER, CLAIMED THAT IF HE COULD
SAY WHAT ART WAS IN WORDS, THERE WOULD BE NO REASON TO PAINT IT; SCULPTOR,
RODIN, THOUGHT THE MAIN ROLE OF ART WAS TO MOVE, TO LOVE, TO GIVE HOPE, TO
TREMBLE, TO LIVE; AND MODERN ARTIST PABLO PICASSO, FAMOUSLY SAID: “THERE IS
NO ABSTRACT ART. YOU MUST ALWAYS START WITH SOMETHING. AFTERWARD, YOU CAN
REMOVE ALL TRACES OF REALITY.”
Wonderfully inclusive in its function as an expression
of human creative skill and imagination, art means
something different to every one of us. One painting
can have a thousand meanings. One sculpture can
be looked at in a hundred different ways. One
photograph can stir up feelings recaptured from a
dozen memories.
Whatever the medium, be it painting, sculpture,
pottery, music, the written word, or any one of the
other many forms of artistic expression that humanity
is so lucky to have created and explored, art enriches
our lives – not to mention our mental and physical
wellbeing – in infinite ways.
It is also a way for people to express themselves. As
Oscar Wilde once said: “Art is the most intense
mode of individualism that the world has known.”
He was right. Art has been a part of humanity since
the earliest times, since cavemen daubed on stone
walls, and though it has evolved over many hundreds
of thousands of years, it continues to strike a timeless
chord. For the artist, it is a way of putting a little of
themselves out into the world; something that will
last long after they have gone.
And for the art enthusiast, the collector, the one who
finds fulfillment in simply looking, listening or feeling
when it comes to art, it’s a way for them to understand
that they are not alone. Other people like the same
things. Other people understand the same things.
Other people feel the same way. So, as individual
as art is, it is also a way for us to come together in
a shared appreciation of what has been created from
nothing, which is in itself a glorious kind of magic
invoked just for us.
Where would we be without art in our lives? We
would be exactly where we are now, but probably
a little more lost, certainly a little less open-minded,
and definitely a little less human.
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