So, what is so valuable to you or anyone else if that is all this painting is? Its just a block with color if you remove emotion. Your emotions are the only reason this painting matters to you.
Figuratively, your emotions are what colors this piece of art. Maybe you see the red and purple on the ground and you think of a warm countryside setting and you are suddenly made more serene. To me, the piece gives me a sense of nostalgia, but I have never been there, nor do I have any logical reason to feel nostalgic (based on what I know).
When I hear "Georgia on my Mind" I am not struck with anything I know: I have no connection to Georgia, nor does that (incredible) chord progression shift my mind in any way. The emotions brought into the song are what makes me feel ANY sort of attachment to it, and is what gives the song value to me.
The only reason any painting or song or performance matters to anyone is not because of any logical value they hold, but because of the emotions they ensue.
I completely agree with your statement that art is meaningless without emotion. Why would I care to listen to "Ase's Death" by Grieg if it wasn't masterfully orchestrated to depict, well... Death(And yes, I am listening to it currently...)? Either way, just to provide a counter argument towards the claim that art is the most driven by emotion, I will be politely disagreeing with that statement. Other than our primal instincts as humans, why would we do anything? If we didn't feel all too much emotion, we'd likely still be sitting in the stone age. Progressiveness is due to emotion. Therefore I think art, just like any of the other facets of knowledge, is mainly driven by emotion around the same amount. Emotion is currently a major human factor of life and without it, not all too much would happen.
ReplyDeleteAs another counterpoint, it could be argued that the color patterns and schemes different humans find pleasing are the purpose behind, for example, the Van Gogh painting pictured above. And yes the most obvious flaw to this claim is the word "pleasing". However, Van Gogh's brain might have instinctively had him paint with the exact scheme he did because it felt right. Not to mention the colors used are fairly accurate with what a pastoral scene such as those tress would create in real life.