Modern Art and Expressing Emotion

One of the most common sayings you hear about art these days is that it expresses the artist's emotions. Indeed, this has become what many people believe to be the whole point of modern art. While it may be true that a work of art indirectly expresses the artist's emotion, this is not the point of it, and it is not even an essential aspect of art.

Lets look at one of the usual definitions of art that you hear today, that it is a physical creation that expresses emotion. The first part of this is right, art does have to be a physical creation. That is an essential aspect of it; if someone were calling something non-physical a work of art, they would be incorrect. This will be explained further after a few other points.

As far as expressing the artist's emotion, of what value would that be to anyone? What would be the point of knowing the artist's emotions at the time they created a work of art? Why would they make a whole painting for that? What is important about any of that?

Whether someone was happy or sad at a particular moment in time is of no real concern to me, and does not warrant artistic creation. This idea makes art all about the artist and excludes everyone else from any real value. Art is not just about the person who creates it.

The problem most people have is they concern themselves too much with the creation of art, not the work of art itself. Most people assume that works of art in themselves have no purpose, so they focus on the action of their creation.

But works of art do have a purpose. We know this because they have been part of human existence since before language or civilization or just about anything. Something without a point would not be so intertwined with human life.

So what is that purpose? It is to express values. A work of art, if it is a work of art, should express mental ideas of values in physical form. It makes complex and deep abstractions on life available to the five senses. These values will elicit emotion, just as they do in other forms, just like when someone tells you a political belief that you strongly disagree with you get angry.

So it is not the artist's emotions that are being expressed, it is their ideas on what's important and valuable in life. The focus on emotion has lead to some of the worst art ever created being accepted by people.

When people see a modern artist making random splotches of paint, they assume that the artist is expressing their emotion, and they let the work be considered art. This is a mistake. Art is far too important to not think about and analyze. Modern art has gone astray and people need to have the courage to point out when something should not be called art.

Author:R Stevens