Art through time
“Art and love are the same: it is the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.”- Chuck Klosterman.
You can say art is as old as humanity, since human beings have had the necessity to express themselves since the beginning (at least, since we are social animals). The origin of art dates back to years before 30,000 BC, where in the stone age (30.000 – 2.500 BC), during prehistory, you can find rock art, cave paintings or sculptures and rock engravings, with themes related to hunting, gods or fertility, among the great works of these times we can find the stonehenge, the first permanent settlements date from around 8000 BC.
Ancient Ages (3000 BC - 476 AD)
This period begins with the discovery of writing. The protagonists of this period are Mesopotamia (currently Syria and Iraq), pre-Columbian America, Africa and of course, the areas of classical ancient art: Greece and Rome. Here is the Mesopotamian period (3,500 - 539 BC), which is highlighted by engravings and stone reliefs, epic narratives and warrior Art, in this period the Sumerians invented writing (3,400 BC) and Hammurabi wrote the first code of laws ( 1,780 BC), there is also The Egyptian Period (3,100 - 30 BC), which is highlighted by reliefs with figures in profile, art focused on life after death, construction of pyramids and sphinxes, and paintings in tombs. You can also find the Greek and Hellenistic period (850 - 31 BC), where its main characteristics are Greek idealism, perfect proportions, themes of nature, gods, religious, in this period occurs the Peloponnesian war (431 BC), one of the great works is the Parthenon. It is also found in Rome (500 BC - 476 BC), features such as Roman realism influenced by Greece and Etruria, art always having a function, themes of nature, historical, narrative or praise, and novel and functional Roman architecture. One of the great works of this time is the Flavian Amphitheater.
Medieval Period (X - XV)
The dates regarding this period are still debated. This corresponds to a period of great evolution for the arts in society. During the high Middle Ages the arts did not have much relevance, but later these had a greater splendor thanks to movements such as the romantic or the Gothic, the artists gained great recognition as promoters of the Fine Arts. One of the great works of this era is the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Modern Age (XV - XVIII)
This age is characterized by movements such as the Renaissance or the Baroque, among the works of this time is La Gioconda by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Contemporary Era (1789 AD - Present)
This is an important period, where movements such as romanticism or the avant-garde stand out, the different arts such as painting, letters, dance, etc., evolved. People like Yoko Ono, Jorge Luis Borges, or Kurt Jooss stand out.
What’s the power of art?
“Any form of art is a form of power; it causes impact, it can influence changes: it can not only change us, but it makes us change.”- Ossie Davis.
An inherent characteristic of art is that it expresses, and therefore cannot be separated from time and history, we can see in it the steps of the human being and how he feels and thinks about it.
One of the biggest problems nowadays is indifference, insensitivity and lack of awareness, even if these are transcendental times of change. So, based on the definition of art presented above,
isn't art seen as the most useful weapon to end this great problem that haunts us?
Art allows human beings to express themselves, to express their way of thinking, feeling, being, and seeing the world. Art has the power to make people feel, and many times it does not have to do with ourselves, but with what someone else feels, lives and sees, art makes us put ourselves in the shoes of other people who see with different eyes and feel what they feel. How many times have we not felt sad, happy, angry by movies, characters in a book? How many times have we not been moved by a story, by the wonderful movements of a dancer, or by a painting? We have seen the history of the world through the art represented by someone else's eyes and yet we have been moved by it, doesn't this make art a wonderful thing?
It means that the power of art is to conect the feelings that had been expressed through history and time. As I know Art is an intrinsic part of the humans and it cannot be removed from us. The problem of nowdays can be indifference but humanity also exists, so this problem is generated by the lack of expression because we have social media, electronics that does not let us understand what really matters and art it's one of these things.