"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls" - Pablo Picasso.
The Arts are defined as painting, sculpture, music, theater, literature, etc., considered as a group of activities done by people with skill and imagination (“the arts.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary).
The term “art” is related to the Latin word “ars” meaning, art, skill, or craft. The first known use of the word comes from 13th-century manuscripts. However, the word art, and its many variations, have probably existed since the founding of Rome.
The individual's definition of "Art" is really very subjective. What for one person might be considered a towering work of great importance, for another might be shrugged off as just so much blah, blah, blah. The Jean Basquiat painting that sold for $110.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2017 would, no doubt, have had trouble finding an audience in Renaissance Italy, for example.
Historically, works of art and symbolic thinking have been held up as proof of the cognitive superiority of modern humans – examples of the exceptional skills that define our species. Interestingly, scientists now claim that Neanderthals, not modern humans, were the first artists on earth. Neanderthals painted on cave walls in Spain 65,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years before modern humans arrived on the scene, researchers say. https://youtu.be/0H_wFNfrMmU
The Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius said that "art is the signature of civilizations". Perhaps that term "civilization" could be construed to mean human or otherwise.
Whatever the case, we count ourselves lucky enough to have friends and family who write - https://www.amazon.com/Gordon-McAlpine/e/B001HPRUW8%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share and paint -https://www.instagram.com/shohanalwis/ and, in doing so, have helped to wash the dust off of our daily lives.
Was it a book or a piece of music or a movie or a painting or a sculpture or something else that raised your spirit to new heights? We look forward to hearing about it so we might be touched in the same way.
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