Art With A Sense Of Cultural Relativism example essay topic

ll art is not only part of society, but is the product of the beliefs and values of the artist and the audience. I believe that the world is divided in the same manner as the human brain. There is the scientific side and the artistic side. Everything in the world can be placed in at least one of the two categories.

Furthermore, I believe that neither side is dominant over the other. From this thought, I conclude that society is composed of both science and art, both expressing beliefs and values in their own respective, unique forms. Focusing on the artistic side, however, one can see a striking paradox. Even though art is more abstract than science, there is a more direct definition of art than science. While a scientist must explain his work in context of a previous discovery or experiment, an artist can explain his work in an original context without any prior perspective. I will explain this irony later in the paper.

Nonetheless, I believe art reflects the beliefs and values present in the artist, and collectively in society. One of the factors that greatly affects artistic works is artist intent versus audience interpretation. Many artists do not publish their intent because a universal theme accepted and harnessed by most artists is individualism. In "Propaganda Under a Dictatorship" from his book Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley addresses the dangers of masses of people and the affects of conformity: "Assembled in a crowd, people lose their power of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice. Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgment or will of their own". Writing the meaning of a painting on a piece of paper and posting it on the wall next to the art turns the audience into a crowd, a collection of people devoid of individual thinking and judgment.

However, simply displaying the painting gives the individual audience an immediate choice: to simply glance at the art and walk away, or to look closer for a meaning, however far it may be from the artist's intent. When a collection of people are looking at a painting without a posted explanation and all thinking for themselves, they become a group. "Groups are capable of being as moral and intelligent as the individuals who form them". (Huxley) Contrary to the previous paragraph, sometimes the artist's intent is necessary to make a piece of art successful.

For example, in the "art happening" example on the box, Danish artist Olafur Elias son produced a piece of art that requires knowledge of intent to experience it. His work called "Seeing Yourself Sensing" is called an art happening which is an interactive study which requires human participation to occur. To a person simply walking by, it would appear to be a wall of glass; but when informed that it is semi-reflective glass that shows the audience the effect he or she has on the surroundings, the "glass wall" becomes a window into wondrous realizations of self. However, even with the intent of the artist, each individual encounters "Seeing Yourself Sensing" as an ever-changing happening; therefore, it would be impossible for the author to write down the exact meaning of his work, because an exact meaning doesn't exist. The exhibit takes on new meaning each day the doors of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City are opened to the public.

I believe that particular work took a meaning never fathomed by the artist. One can only imagine what meaning many people took from "Seeing Yourself Sensing" on September 12, 2001. Surely, there was a broad range of emotions demonstrated that day. I conclude that on occasion, artist intent is necessary for some art to "happen", but the meaning doesn't exist on paper. Another aspect to understanding how society is reflected in the arts is to view the art with regards to its origin and to its audience.

The term for this idea is a sociological phrase usually attributed to demographics: cultural relativism. An example of how this way of thinking affects art, I will use the example of the controversial art exhibit Sensation. This particular group of artists produced very unorthodox and, in many cases, disturbing art in the name of freedom of expression. In order to understand the motivation for this activity, one must look at the culture relative to the artist. Sensation probably originated from a group of artists who felt as though their rights to freedom were being oppressed and decided to act in extremist fashion to express themselves. The city of New York decided that Sensation shouldn't be brought to the U. S due to the graphic nature of the works; one may argue, however, that if the state had simply viewed the art with a sense of cultural relativism and understood why these people created this collection, perhaps New York's decision would have been different.

As I stated in the introduction, art presents us with a paradox, one that can only be explained using historical clich " es. I wrote that while a scientist must explain his work in context of a previous discovery or experiment, an artist can explain his work in an original context without any prior perspective. All of science is a series of experiments and discoveries, each relating in some form to a previous experiment or discovery. This is because two plus two equals four and every time someone encounters two plus two, it will always, without question, equal four. Not so in art. A yellow circle plus a red square equals whatever the artist wants it to; it does not have to equal an orange circle-square.

Scientists are stuck knowing that the round object attached to an axle is a wheel. However, an artist is free to "reinvent the wheel", to manipulate past experiments and design brand-new ideas of what he or she is attempting to express. Art is a new frontier in breakthroughs of ideas, emotions and inspirations. Each new day brings with it a renewed and updated cultural perspective and altered values in society. This way of life is bred into the beings existing within it, and it bleeds onto the canvas of their minds. There it begins to mold itself into an expression of thoughts and emotions, a piece of art both with meaning and meaningless, perfect and flawed, deliberate and spontaneous.

The final product is revealed in this world by those who experience it; we call it art.