Art generally forces the viewer to view things differently and think openly about things/subjects differently. Even if the artwork is just for aesthetic pleasure, that looks nice hanging on the wall in the living room, it still started with an idea. The painting contained in the frame or on the canvas is just the results of an idea, just the Artists interpretation of an idea.
I’m using paintings as an example because in my opinion Paintings appear to be the most typical form of Art perceived from an “outsiders” point of view.
For example, my Granddad always states to me, “Art is a nice drawing or painting”, not all this other palaver the Art world brings to the viewers today.
When I refer to “outsiders”, I mean the uneducated people, in Art who have an opinion on Art and on what Art is.
For example, Picasso had an idea before he painted “Girl before a mirror” in 1932, even though the painting can appear aesthetically pleasing the viewer is in fact appreciating an idea as a physical thing. In this, case the painting.
This is very interesting because “Girl before the mirror” is very personal to Picasso because it is his young mistress Marie Therese Walter.
When the viewer initially looks at the painting, they will relate it to their own world and make the painting personal to them through their own ideas. Exactly the same as what Picasso has done, but expressed it through a painting. The painting is just a middle ground were people come together to connect to it but bring their own interpretations of ideas away from it.
The viewer makes their own ideas, the viewer does not know Picasso’s young mistress so how can they relate and have the same connection with the painting as the Artist?
What happens if I take this middle ground of the artwork out and just highlight the idea? The idea does not get enough credit. Viewers are under an illusion that the “painting” (painting being used as an example of physical art) is amazing and as a result, this is were appreciation is aimed at the physical appearance of the Art. When in fact what the viewers don’t grasp, is it’s their own mind making the Art work a good piece of Art.
Does that make the Artist, a machine? to presents ideas to the viewers to reinterpret? Does an artist just take advantage of the viewer’s own conscious? Because people do not see that, what their viewing is in fact a reflection of themselves and their own reality?
You never know maybe that is why Picasso painted his mistress facing a mirror, which portrayed a different reflection?
