The Relationship Between Art and Culture

Art and Culture

No one ever asked the question, "Do all people have culture?" until the end of the 19th century. E.B. Tyler, world famous anthropologist from Oxford University in England, discussed the culture of primitive people. Before the writing of his book, Primitive Culture, never before had culture been associated with people from outside of the west. It was common knowledge back before E.B. decided to write his book that one needed an education in order to be considered to have a culture. Instead, new definitions on the details of culture began to develop. Now, people started to express that culture is the actions one chooses to define their character. Thus, however one chose to live their life was their "new culture." On top of this, not only is it how they live their lives, but it is the mental capacity with which they do it. What could be a better definition of culture than, the meanings and values that people contain with which they decide to move their lives?

In order for culture to survive a man, family, or generation, tradition and language become an integral part to its longevity. And by language, I do not just mean the verbal articulation of men and women as means to communicate. Instead, I am talking about all means of communication; music, architecture, poetry, sculpture, etc. These carriers of culture represent the meanings and values of both the artist creating, and more importantly, the meanings and values of all of his or her civilization at that moment in time. Each form of art described above has a story to it. The story is the lives and times of the people in the moment in which the work was created. These people are attempting to justify and explain the values that they put on what they are doing with their lives. The key part of this story is the setting to which it was assembled. In order for one to understand what is going on in the art form, one needs to comprehend the mental state of the people of that period. These monuments are supposed to speak to the viewer symbolically. Once one begins to understand this, they can begin to dissect the symbols which the art contains.

A perfect example of this symbolism was executed by Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian author. His masterpiece, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, raised many questions on Russian culture, and moved people in a way which was never before possible. He pondered the question, are the meanings and values to which I live truly meaningful? Or instead, should I be doing something in my life which would be quite different from the way in which I live it today? This type of inquisition is very difficult to raise in a very serious way, and thus only certain artists can affect the masses to the extent to which Tolstoy did. Good authors, such as Tolstoy, raise fundamental questions like this, of the culture to which they live. They want to make sure that their cultural identity is valuable, and has the longevity to make it historical.

Art is created to fulfill two respects, its decorative and didactic forms of expression. In one sense, it is meant to simply be a playful and pleasant sight to stare at or listen to. But more importantly, it serves to teach and inform the viewer. Since art is the objectification of the purely experimental pattern in our languages, we can only scratch the surface on how these men and women felt when they created their masterpieces. These artists desire the onlooker to enter into a world in interiority. This aspect always touches something that is timeless and permanent to the observer. These artists have an inexhaustible source of wonder. They want to feel every emotion imaginable, and use this to create a meaning that has not yet been created. In order to do this, they must take the artistic language that they already have, and examine its depths in new ways which never before were considered possible.

Artwork has the uncanny ability to take us back to a more immediate feeling. Since the art is initially unknown to the spectator, they must abandon the feelings and meanings to which they live, and begin to contemplate how the artist was feeling. This feeling is very similar to that which a baby is born into. By removing yourself from the ordinary world, you can begin to get to the primordial and pure experiences which are being articulated. Art also tends to explore the richer and more wonderful ways to live in this world, or the exact opposite, the horrifying or meaninglessness of it. It tends to put us into communion with the strangeness of our world in which we live. In doing so, art allows us to get back to the things themselves. Due to the fact that artwork can convey these feelings, it completely liberates the viewer from the ordinary patterns of life. The best part about artwork though is its unlimited possibilities. Each day, artists are discovering new meanings and values and desire to communicate these cultural symbols to you in imaginative ways.