Scientific view on art .
There are so many things which
differentiate a man from an animal. And that’s
why precisely man is called as social animal. The character of the word social
in any epoch of the human evolution changes from time to time. It actually
means the kind of society in which human beings are part of .so many factors are there which impacts this social character of humans. And
this social character out bursts in myriad of ways. One such
channel is art. Right from the very
beginning of the evolution of humans art also evolved along with them. The cave paintings which are tens of
thousands of years old through out the
world can give probably the oldest
definition of art and culture of human history.
The divine entity in art:
Its only after the development
of language literature had really started developing. till then the mode of
communications were very abstract. the art and literature right from the
beginning were representing the things
which were bewildering for humans at most of the times. The natural disasters,
the animals were prime among them. Being the prime motivation of human evolution “ the quest for controlling nature “ , the
advanced civilizations started representing
things which are not precisely
the old bizarre puzzles of nature but
their own identity of their civilizations.
Art form like singing and dancing started developing . which at most of the times were collective
and not individual. But the continuation of the brand old fear at nature and its effects on
humans persisted even then , but
in a different form called religion. So in a way the civilizations
inherited religions as one among their myriad of other identities like food ,
dress , etc., so unlike before any particular
art of
any civilization started
representing their identities too. This is the phase which started having divine
entities more in art. And this continued
even after development of language and literature. Which is very evident in all the medieval
period literature and art.
The advancement of human society
through the inventions of wheel , fire
weapons etc ,. Paved the way of developing the productive forces more . Through agriculture and the ownership of land , human evolution
moved a great leap forward. As this
started giving individual identities for groups and communities which necessarily had a religious
control over them . this actually reflected peoples life style in various ways including
art. In all the civilizations right from Greece to rome , the china to
india and in latin America all the art forms had divine enitity. Even
after the development of language there was no change of trend in the artistic representations of the world at large. This
is very evident in all the great epics
of the world till the medivel age.
The artistic entity of art
:
As slowly the society advanced more , the scientific advancements
and the resultant change in the mode of production reflected in the power change in heads of society. This
precisely happened initially in Europe
at large. The religious heads , kings
and fudal land lords who controlled the art and literature were slowly loosing
their battle towards the newly emerging set of people who were modern in life
style and outlook. This class of people eventually took over the power and
democratized the power and formed newer forms
of governments .this shift started
reflecting in art and literature also. The old Iliad and odisy
started becoming hamlets and Othellos. Art and literature now became more human
than ever before. The old feudal society was severely criticized in every
possible art form. European renaissance being the prime example. As and when
the fudal social order lost its hegemony the art forms changed it contents. The
old criticism where kept aside and the new phase started which actually gave
the message that “art for the sake of art”.
The grammar of art was strictly
emphasized.every form like painting ,
sculptures , dramas and literature. all
were in the mood of praising the
aesthetics of the art. The gap between
the reality and the artistic representations started growing once again. Which
actually started creating an array of art forms which actually started counter
arguing the existing forms if not politically but at least ideologically.
Art
for the sake of whom ?
The
growing gap between the reality of human lives and the representation given by
various art forms was severe in the colonial period of 19th and 20th century through out the world . the anti
colonial art and literature was in a
boom in this period. And the question of “purpose of the art “ has started
raising in this epoch. Even in
imperialist countries sharp divide between literature of Oscar wilds and
Charles dickens were evident. Even in india the formation of IPTA paved the way
for qualitative change from the tagores contributions and Bengal art revivals. Its
only in the late 1940s that is after the conclusion of second world war the clear
message of “art is for people” was highly pronounced. The idea of individualism
is severely questioned. The political changes once again formulated new trends
of art and literature which broke all the grammatical definitions.
Personalities like Vincent von goh in latin America , Pablo Neruda in spain ,
maxim gorky of Russia , mulk raj anand ,
munshi premchand from india , the formations of
institutions like janam and sahmat in india , continued this questioning
legacy over the “purpose of art” . they threw new lights on colonial and post
colonial art and literature . the fight is still on between the two furious
arguments. That is “is it art for the sake of art” and “is art for the sake of people”. Several
modern arts forms are continuing this fight. Especially in this globalised contest. This fight at upper
crust seems to be fight difference between two different view of arts but its
actually a fight between present and future.
