I might just be the only person out there who isn't drawn to art. Yes, I see that they're beautiful, and I want one hung somewhere in my room just for the aesthetic appeal it offers, but that's it. Except it's a painting of things or images that I, and anyone else, can easily identify, then I can't tell if there's a message in the picture.
I mean, what does it mean to be "meaningful"? Where does "meaningfulness" come from, and who gets to decide what has meaning? Doesn't everything have meaning when you think about it?
The "meaningfulness" of art is determined by several factors, some of which can actually change during or after the life cycle of the artwork: The artist may create artwork from the basis of meaning, the artist may discover meaning in the artwork during or after the course of its creation, or the artist may inject a new, distinct meaning into the artwork retrospectively.
A critic or viewer-including the artist--may
extract meaning from an artwork at any point during its creation and subsequent existence, or from its context, or from something completely adjacent to the artwork itself, like something else
that the artwork contextualizes.
Some artworks are just made to be silly or absurd. Some meant to encompass profound meaning, fail to do so, and end up even sillier and more absurd than artworks that were intended to be. And even at that, a silly, absurd artwork can still provoke thought.
So, why should we worry about the meaning of art when It's perhaps the least important attribute?
One dominant thing here is that we humans are wired to seek patterns. It's the way we store sensory information. Our brains are very quick to find what fits with what we've already seen, heard, smelled, tasted, moved through, touched, etc. We also tend to disregard that which doesn't fit.
Art, being visual, is a ripe playground for patterning, and it is often the case that something an artist might have put in the painting without knowing is picked up by a viewer with his/her experience. That's why sometimes we go,"I never saw that until now," after someone else has pointed it out.
But, does art have to have a message?
Human beings make meaning. Human beings also make art. Sometimes, these things overlap, and sometimes they don't, but both these kinds of making are central to being human. A society without art is a desert. A society without meaning is also a desert. So, in the broadest possible view of things, perhaps they are one and the same.
We listen to music, we enjoy it, the melody, the harmony, the music. It is only a few people who care for the lyrics and rarely even. The music is what appeals. The entertainment is what we care for. The lyrics and meaning are mostly an afterthought sometimes. Why is art different? Why can't we soak up in its visual appeal and ambiguity and let it at that?
Art, in all forms, can be interpreted and enjoyed in different ways no matter the original artist's intentions. Each person experiencing the art brings their own ideas and experiences to relate to the subject or help them find meaning in it.
Art does not need to have a meaning. Art is art.
Thanks for gracing this post.
Greetings!
