Definition Essay: The Purpose Of Art

"If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul," (Paul Cezanne). Art is an expression of human creation that encaptures skill and imagination, and is created to be beautiful, or to convey ideas of feelings. The purpose of art is to communicate different ideas and elicit a response to the intended audience. Art is made to get a reaction out of people, and as Edgar Degas once said, ““Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Art is made to stir the soul, and the soul is a spiritual part of humans distinct from the physical part, and is a principle of the feelings, thoughts, and actions in humans. The link between art

The purpose of art is to evoke a response, and, “Art is not valium. One of the legitimate roles of art is to stimulate public reflection and debate about the key issues of our time,” (Winikoff). What Tamara Winikoff means is that art is supposed to create an uproar, and that is why some art is controversial. If it wasn’t controversial, or didn’t create mixed opinions, then it has no purpose. Art is supposed to have emotion, and make people feel these emotions. This is a major theme in the movie Big Eyes. In the movie, there is a debate between Margaret Keane and Walter Keane. She argues that her art has an emotional connection, and that it is emotional to others too. Walter just tells her that art can just be produced for money, and emotion doesn’t matter. However, the art that Walter Keane actually creates is not filled with any emotion, and is not nearly as good as Margaret’s art, which based only on emotion. The best art comes from emotional connections to the

The soul is the spiritual part of a person apart from the physical part. Humankind uses the soul as the driving for feeling, thinking, and acting. Art and the soul connect in that art can influence the soul, but also that art is made by the soul by expressing the innermost feelings of the artist. The soul can influence art, or be influenced by it. One example of this is listening to music. From personal experience, music has the capability to make a person feel happy, sad, or can make them feel inspired. The soul is responsible for the different types of emotions that humans are capable of experiencing, so one can say that music directly affects the soul. Art that has influenced me was one scene from the John Hughes movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. When the characters visit the Art Institute in Chicago, one character, Cameron, visits the painting, Sunday Afternoon in the Park by Georges Saurat. Cameron, who has family issues, stares at the painting and stares at a little girl with her mother, and he keeps looking closer and closer, and the closer he looks, the less he sees. “The closer he looks at the child, the less he sees, of course, with this style of painting. But the more he looks at it, there’s nothing there. He fears that the more you look at him (Cameron), the less you see. There isn’t anything there. That’s him” (John Hughes). This painting evokes the emotion of fear for Cameron, and made me feel