Why Do We Care About Art

Albert Elsen, a now deceased professor of art at Stanford University, published an article in the Hastings Law Journal about the preservation of art and the governmental and cultural obligation society has to art. He says that preserving the art of the past is essential to knowledge and wisdom. That as in China and Israel, an artistic heritage is a country's identity card for the present and passport for the future.

Albert E. Elsen, professor of art at Stanford University for 27 years and an international authority on the history of modern sculpture

As to the lone artist that's not really what he's set out to do. He doesn't necessarily care that his artwork has become part of his nation's heritage. It is either his livelihood or his passion. That artist, however, is influenced by the culture that surrounds him, so simply by association, his art becomes part of that nations' heritage.

In tandem with an artists' intentions, the idea that art is a medium of self-expression is a relatively new one. Until the 19th century, art was generally valued for the skill of the artist or the miracle of his hand. Even Michelangelo, who was fiercely proud of his individuality, did not think of his art as self-expression.

Artists were generally commissioned to do paintings, in part because paints and canvases were far too expensive for an artist to purchase, and therefore established an academic system that would produce excellent work.

Recently, however, modernists have changed the experience of art, and acquired styles that interpret personal experience rather than the experience of others. The philosophy of art is one to be debated by scholars, but Picasso, who is just as famous if not more than Michelangelo saw his art as a diary.

Pablo Picasso

Both views lend themselves to that nation's cultural heritage simply because it captures the mentality present during that time period.

What do you think? How do you see art differently than Elsen does? 

Love // Christelle

P.S. The full article is "Why Do We Care About Art" by Albert Elsen published in 1975.