The goal of an artist is to express his vision regardless of the publics reaction - Essay Example

The first point that comes to mind is that the purpose of art is to give pleasure. At this juncture, a look in to ‘The nature of Art’ by Cothey will be useful. According to Cothey (21), a commonly used analogy is that ‘art is the food for the mind’. Now, one has to read the explanation provided by Tolstoy, the greatest artist of all times. In ‘What is Art?’, he says that ‘the satisfaction of our taste cannot serve as a basis for our definition of the merits of the food…. In the same way, beauty, or that which pleases us, can in no sense serve as a basis for the definition of art’.

(Cothey, 21 ). Now, it becomes easy to have a clear idea about the purpose of art. It is evident that the quality of art cannot be measured by the extent to which it is pleasing to the general public. Instead, its nutritional value might lie somewhere else. To illustrate, the work “Loose Lips Sink Ships” by Peter Langenbach portrays former President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in a bathtub. It is an admitted fact that neither Clinton nor his admirers would be able to enjoy the art though the artist hugely succeeded in creating humor, having both aesthetic and nutritional value.

At this juncture, it seems beneficial to incorporate the Aristotle view that tragedy can result in a catharsis of emotions. Now, if someone analyses the controversial art works of the past, one can identify the fact that each of them, though presented in the most erratic, insane and inhuman way, has a social reality to say, either presented in a direct way or indicating to the issue subtly. To illustrate, Renee Cox, in “Yo Mama’s Last Supper” presented a nude African-American portraying Jesus.

Though many find this highly offensive, for the sake of argument, one can say that the artist wanted to show the attractiveness of the Church, the alluring nature of Jesus, and so on. In other words, the beauty of art really lies in the eyes of the beholder. One cannot forget how Leonardo da Vinci still creates confusion in the ‘Last Supper’ through the presence of Mary Magdalene and how Dan Brown wrote ‘The Da Vinci Code’. Now, it seems evident that the beauty of art lies in vivid imagination that knows no boundaries.

Erecting barriers in the name of social norms, religion, culture and ethics can only kill the essence of art. In other words, had there been strict imposition of rules on art, many of the masterpieces of the history would not have been developed. They all had their birth because of the intellectual freedom enjoyed by the artists. As V. S. Ramachandran and William Hirstein observe, “all art is caricature” (Ramachandran and Hirstein, 18). Their study points towards the purpose of art, according Hindu view, as conveying ‘rasa’ or ‘essence’ (17).

To achieve this purpose, the artists often amplify the features they observe. As an example, the researchers point out how artists amplify the feminine features of a female while portraying a female, and how they overemphasize the masculine features of a male to convey ‘essence’. In addition, the researchers point out the fact that if the purpose of art is to merely present a reality directly, it could be more easily done using a camera (Ramachandran and Hirstein, 16). Thus, the essence of art lies in enhancing, transcending, and even distorting reality.

Artists, throughout history, were well