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Art For Art's Sake

Elizabeth Bennett
Write About Art 2
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Andy Warhol once said, ‘Art is what you can get away with’. Chögyam Trungpa declared, ‘creating a work of art is not a harmless thing. It always is a powerful medium’, while according to Georg Baselitz ‘No artist has ever changed anything for better or worse’.

Consensus is not something particularly familiar in the age-old debate about the definition and purpose of art. Perhaps more curious than this division is the need we feel as human beings to argue about the value of art in our societies. The simple appreciation of art is often lost in the clamour of opinions, dissent and the apparent need for art to have a defined social, cultural or economic value.

From our very beginnings, there is evidence that the human race has created and constantly valued art in a way not dissimilar from the impulses for food and shelter. ‘Art from the Glacial Period (40,000 BC – 1,500 BC) consists primarily of human figures in sculpture and animal figures in paintings.’ (Jacobus, L. 1986) Many of these early figures, chiefly animals, are believed to have been bestowed with magical qualities by the brush. For example, paintings of bull and bison could have been made in the hope of gaining control over these animals or sharing in their powers. Historians and art critics alike suggest that our earliest artefacts demonstrate a respect for life and its mysteries, as well as respect for harmony, grace, balance and beauty. 

In a Neanderthal burial site found in Iraq, the body appears to have been interred with thistles, cornflowers and other medicinal plants arranged in a way which suggests the mourners valued balance and order. ‘Most scholars who work... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917. Replica 1964

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917. Replica 1964, Marcel Duchamp. Porcelain. Tate Gallery London.
© Marcel Duchamp, 1917/ADAGP. Licensed by VISCOPY 2010.

Francisco Goya, The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid: The Executions on Principe Pio Hill,

Francisco Goya, The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid: The Executions on Principe Pio Hill, 1814. Oil on canvas. 268 x 347cm. Collection Museo Nacional del Prado. Image courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado.