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Art makes society: an introductory visual essay

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• https://doi.org/10.1080/21500894.2013.782334

Introduction: art is doing, not viewing!

Art as material culture, art as action, conclusions, notes on contributors, acknowledgements.

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In this visual essay that serves as an introduction to the set of articles presented in this issue, we illustrate four ways that art makes society. We adopt a stance informed by recent perspectives on material culture, moving away from thinking about art purely in aesthetic terms, instead asking how art objects have significance in particular cultural and social contexts. Arguing that art is participatory as well as visually affecting, we first suggest that art creates sites of activity for shared interaction. Second, we discuss the varied ways that people use art to create and assert representational models for social relations. Third, we consider the varied roles of art as cultural capital, marking out members of society through shared forms of knowledge or access to art. Finally, we document the ways that art serves as a medium of exclusion and as a means for resisting authority or challenging power relations. We highlight the layered meanings inherent in many artworks.

• material culture
• performance
• social relations
• archaeology

Anthropological perspectives on art have changed radically in the last three decades. In the modern West, ‘art’ has traditionally been understood as a form of high culture, participated in through norms of connoisseurship, patronage, and individual expression. Images and objects have been primarily seen as things to view, set apart in museums, galleries, and other public places. Archaeologists and anthropologists have traditionally treated art in a parallel way, as symbolic expressions of meanings and values. In such an approach, scholars viewed art with the aim of interpreting (or decoding) an act of communication expressed in conventional symbolic forms.

Recently, however, scholars in both anthropology and the various disciplines focused on art studies have expressed scepticism that such a perspective can encompass the realities of art as it is experienced, thought about, and engaged with, both in Western settings and in the wider world. In art studies, a material turn has foregrounded the presence of objects more than their interpretation (Moxey Citation 2008 ). Anthropologists argue that concepts of the uniqueness of artworks, for example, may be emphasised more in the West than elsewhere. In line with developments in material culture theory (Miller Citation 2005 ; Tilley Citation 1999 ; Tilley et al. Citation 2006 ), art is now seen more in terms of its participation, engagement, and actions with people, rather than simply as objects and images to be passively viewed (Gell Citation 1998 ; Morphy and Perkins Citation 2006 ).

Regarding art as a behaviour – an instance of ‘making special’ – shifts the emphasis from the modernist's view of art as object or quality or the postmodernist's view of it as text or commodity to the activity itself (the making or doing and appreciating), which is what it is in many pre-modern societies where the object is essentially an occasion for or an accoutrement to ceremonial participation … (Dissanayake Citation 1995 , 223)

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Art makes society’, we explore the implications of this approach. We do not consider the theoretical arguments in depth, but instead illustrate with examples the range of ways that art helps to constitute social relations. Our aim is to provide a general context for the articles which make up this issue.

Writing as archaeologists and anthropologists exploring a topic which stands at the crossroads of many fields, we wish to position ourselves clearly. One goal of the contributors to this issue is simply to provoke archaeologists and anthropologists to think about art in relation to societal dynamics. In response to doubts about the relevance of a traditional, Western category of ‘art’ for the understanding of other cultures, many anthropologists have abandoned the term altogether in favour of a focus on material culture. Exceptions are anthropologists working at the interface of Western and non-Western cultures, who ask how the specifically Western conceptions of art are used in appropriating and commodifying indigenous creations (Küchler Citation 1988 ; Marcus and Myers Citation 1995 ; Thomas Citation 1991 ). Archaeologists generally follow suit. As a consequence, art is left untheorised, except through a semiotic/representationalist paradigm that limits what we can do, beyond trying – often fruitlessly and usually contentiously – to interpret the content. If instead we acknowledge that art is material culture with specific properties and capacities, we can understand much more. Looking beyond the disciplinary boundaries of archaeology and anthropology, we also recognise important theoretical developments in fields such as art history and visual culture studies. The movement towards regarding the art object as influential through its presence and material qualities (Moxey Citation 2008 ) is parallel to the material turn happening across the humanities and social sciences more broadly, an art-theory cognate to ‘thing theory’ in literature (Brown Citation 2001 ) and approaches to materiality in anthropology (Miller Citation 2005 ). Indeed, since these themes are already commonly explored in the archaeological literature, we see great potential for studies of art to open up a rich dialogue across disciplines.

The shift in perspective described above is intertwined with broader transformations in anthropological approaches to art. Some of the impact of art certainly derives from its aesthetic properties; for example, in ritual, emotional impacts may derive in part from the beauty or tactility of the objects or aspects of performance, or from the virtuosity displayed by an artisan (DeMarrais Citation 2013 ). In most cultures, some objects are fashioned with effort and skill to create a strong aesthetic impression (Coote Citation 1992 ; Morphy and Perkins Citation 2006 ); the natural world similarly has aesthetic qualities that inspire artists as well as viewers. At the same time, anthropologists have traditionally and rightly been cautious about imposing a high culture, aesthetic view of ‘art’ on non-Western peoples and, indeed, on European works before the Renaissance. The category of ‘art’ is often problematic, as ethnographers have repeatedly demonstrated (Gell Citation 1998 ; Layton Citation 1991 ; Myers Citation 1991 ). As Appadurai ( Citation 1986 ) pointed out over 25 years ago, an object's significance is as dependent on its cultural context and history as on its intrinsic properties. Indigenous ‘art’ often operated within completely different frames from those which Westerners habitually impose on things designated as art. An excellent example is Küchler's (1988) study of Malanggan statues, which were never intended to last. Although Western collectors treat the statues as art, purchasing them for display in museums, the statues were meant to decay, with the making of the statue serving to cement and to secure the memory of the deceased. Thus, the things archaeologists and anthropologists understand as ‘art’ include images and objects produced for uses that range well beyond what ‘art’ does in our own society. Further examples include numerous medieval paintings framing ritual settings (as altarpieces for example), the sculptures of Classical Antiquity that became objects of veneration, and much prehistoric and non-Western rock art executed as acts of participation with perhaps little concern for creating permanently visible or lasting designs (Fowles and Arterberry Citation 2013 ).

… These boards are richly carved and painted, and they are the first thing that the Trobrianders’ overseas exchange partners get to see when the Trobriand flotilla arrives on their shores, before exchange operations get under way. The purpose of these beautiful carvings is to demoralize the opposition … Neither the Trobrianders nor their exchange partners operate a category of ‘art’ as such; from their point of view the efficacy of these boards stems from the powerful magical associations they have … (Gell Citation 1998 , 69)

As both Gell ( Citation 1998 ) and Dissanayake ( Citation 1995 ) have argued, from different starting points, the visibility of the objects, their social effects, and their distinctiveness (often indicated by the time and effort put into their making) reveal that these objects were intended to have an impact.

In this collection of papers, in line with ongoing theoretical debate, contributors emphasise not aesthetic qualities per se , but the material realities of art (objects and images) in their social contexts. If art is seen as (visual) material culture, we need to look past approaches to art as meaning, as symbols and as representation (and beyond aesthetics) to consider how art – as material culture – has direct and lasting influences on human beings. Contributors explore how art mediates power relations, establishes ideational realms, as well as influencing the routine encounters and engagements of everyday life. Similarly, art – as material culture –has political significance, expressed in varied ways, often tied to the acquisition and circulation of desired objects by the powerful (Helms Citation 1992 ). While art can be displayed or used in rituals to generate consensus (DeMarrais Citation 2011 ), contributors to this collection also explore cases in which the shared act of making art may generate new social ties or reinforce sentiments of solidarity (Fowles and Arterberry Citation 2013 ). Art can innovate, express cosmological themes, engage with a narrative, or re-work elements of an existing cultural tradition. All of these effects are elements of the way art facilitates social action and agency, rather than remaining a passive object of viewership.

In understanding art as action, the question we ask is: What does an (art) object do, and how? The interpretative movement involves recognising that what we call art is a form of material culture intended to have specific social effects. To examine its material and design characteristics is to begin to understand how it worked. In the following section, we consider the implications of an approach to art as action.

To the extent that art grows out of performance and participation, it involves a sequence of gestures that may draw groups of people together. In this way, art may constitute a group of participants, involve them in making it or using it in ritual and other ways. These social activities will frame art for discussion or reaction as well as, in some cases, involve viewing by an audience. These approaches to art are distinct from recent conventions invoking a solitary artist producing work for the museum or gallery wall.

In modern society, art allows people to ‘remake themselves and their worlds, while commenting on their values and beliefs’ (from the World Art website, http://www.tandfonline.com/action/aboutThisJournal?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rwor20 ). Archaeologists, of course, rarely have access to thought processes; however, the range and diversity of art from past societies is, in our view, testament to the importance of this ongoing ‘commentary’ among human beings. The archaeological record contains not only the objects and images (‘art’) of past societies, but also the locations where they were made, displayed, or used. Further insights come from art that decorated buildings, was erected as monuments, or made visible in other settings in which fixed objects or images are found. The scale, visibility, and accessibility of these objects and images are further sources of information about their cultural significance.

In the rest of this essay, we present a range of examples to consider the varied ways in which art makes society. We consider: (1) the ways art can frame a setting; (2) art as participation; (3) art as representational models for social relations; and (4) art as a medium for exclusion or resistance.

Art creates sites of activity

Art establishes settings for action, framing architectural or open air spaces used for gatherings, public events, or collective action. Large-scale or monumental installations, such as memorials, create sites for the re-enactment of shared memories. Visual art can help to create a ritual setting by setting it apart, distinguishing ritual space from quotidian contexts; art may also help to set the scene through references to liturgical narratives. At a more intimate scale, a framed reproduction of an Impressionist painting in a doctor's waiting room can establish an unthreatening atmosphere of middle-of-the-road gentility to comfort anxious patients.

In acts of monumentalisation, people deploy large-scale artworks to create settings in which group memory is established and experienced. Often, as is the case with war memorials, these settings involve rites of commemoration ( Figure 1 ). On other occasions, memories may actually be created or invented through the art, as in the African Burial Ground monument in New York City.

Figure 1.  Ypres, Belgium: memorial arch for British war dead of World War I. The walls are covered with the names of the dead, in a form of textual art; note space for ceremonial assembly within monument. Photo: J. Farr.

Large-scale art framing a ritual setting is visible in Figure 2 , a rock art panel from the American Southwest. These murals were widely distributed and highly visible; this image of San Juan anthropomorphs was pecked into an outcrop in Butler Wash (south-eastern Utah) during the Basketmaker II Period (AD 50–500). It shows a central figure who is ‘life-size’ (about 5 feet tall) flanked by additional figures wearing ritual adornments and headdresses. Rock art panels were often created at open-air sites, near locations used for autumn gatherings for ‘… exchange of marriage partners, trading, gaming … and political maneuvering among shamans’ (Robins and Hays-Gilpin Citation 2000 , 234). Rock art was highly visible and public, created on alcove walls, cliffs or on boulders near water sources. Reuse of some locations is indicated by the crowding of images or superimposition, suggesting ongoing modification (Charles and Cole Citation 2006 , 194).

Figure 2.  Prehistoric rock art panel, Basketmaker II period, AD 50–500, Butler Wash, Utah. Photo: Robert Mark and Evelyn Billo of Rupestrian CyberServices.

‘Decorative’ rather than political or ritual art is far from unknown in the ancient world, as in the famous frescoes and mosaics from Roman Pompeii ( Figure 3 ). While ancient people no doubt took aesthetic pleasure in such settings, we cannot simply regard them as ‘art for art's sake’ in the modern sense; much as in the example of paintings in a doctor's waiting room, the choice of content, style and placement for such imagery – whether theological and mythological, naturalistic or erotic, or geometrical – may have helped create appropriate spaces for particular activities or social relationships.

Figure 3.  Decorative frescos and mosaics in a bedroom from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Pompeii, Italy, first century AD. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1903 (03.14.13a-g), photographed by Schecter Lee. Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Art is participatory

Art often invites participation, creating a focus or medium for relational action (Fowles and Arterberry Citation 2013 ). Adornment of the body through use of masks, costumes, body paintings, or tattoos transforms the body temporarily or permanently, while drawing attention. Figure 4 shows a mask from the Torres Strait. Made from turtleshell, wood, feathers, coconut fibre, resin, shell, and paint, this mask not only demonstrates the skills with which ritual adornments were produced, but also reminds us of the dramatic impressions they likely generated when worn. Masks are quintessentially participatory art; they enrol people into temporary assemblages of people and artifice, or create composite, living moments of altered realities.

Figure 4.  Mask, Torres Strait, nineteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1967 (1978.412.1510). Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Beyond specific events, the wearing of badges, insignia, or regalia in daily life also generates shared identities, marking out individuals as members of groups. Figure 5 shows a pilgrim badge from England, worn to display the pilgrim's active participation in pilgrimage and his or her wider affiliation with Christianity. Such forms of dress not only allowed people to objectify and to categorise themselves; they also enmeshed others in political relations such as colonialism (Loren Citation 2013 ).

Figure 5.  Pilgrim badge, England, fourteenth century. British Museum 1898,0720.1. Image: © The British Museum.

In addition, the making or using of art objects or images may involve multiple participants, who forge bonds of solidarity through shared activities. The making of the art may be as (or more) important as the final product, seen for example in the collective endeavour of sewing a handmade quilt. Handprints attesting presence and participation are among the oldest motifs in human art, occurring in Palaeolithic painted caves. Around the world, rock art often consists of repeated motifs, surprisingly inconspicuous and sometimes ephemeral, which may result from gestures that comprised parts of a performed narrative of some kind. In modern settings, graffiti can attest to a human wish to assert one's presence. Figure 6a shows a monument marking the location where Garibaldi, hero of the Italian Risorgimento , was wounded in a minor skirmish; Figure 6b shows graffiti applied by school children during a visit to the site. The epigraphs, all along the lines of ‘Peppe loves Maria’, convey anything but the patriotic sentiments that the monument is supposed to evoke, but they do attest participation in the spirit of a school trip.

Figure 6a.  Garibaldi monument, Aspromonte, Calabria, Italy: monument. Photo: J. Robb.

Figure 6b.  Garibaldi monument, Aspromonte, Calabria, Italy: school-child graffiti on base of monument. Photo: J. Robb.

In archaeological settings, decorated pottery was often used to distinguish feasts as special events. In northwest Argentina, libation vessels decorated with modelled figures of animals are common in sites of the Regional Developments Period (AD 950–1430). Figure 7 shows a libation bowl; adorned with a feline head at one end, the bowl has an opening on the opposite side to facilitate drinking of its contents. More generally, the sharing of food and drink in ritual settings helps to sustain social ties; in the south Andes, the use of animal depictions probably also referenced shamanic or cult activity.

Figure 7.  Prehispanic libation bowl with feline head, Regional Developments Period, AD 950–1430, northern Calchaquí Valley, Argentina. Photo: E. DeMarrais.

Finally, some art objects require considerable expertise or skill to make but are consumed or destroyed during their intended use. Malanggan objects, mentioned above, are excellent examples since they are implicated in forging memory. Other art objects whose appropriate use involves destruction include Mexican piñatas, elaborately decorated wedding cakes, ritually punctured Mimbres bowls of the American Southwest, and ‘Celtic’ metalwork deposited as votives in rivers and bogs. As a further archaeological example, the earliest clay figurines, made during the Palaeolithic of Central Europe, may have been ‘action art’ intended to explode dramatically when placed in a fire (Farbstein Citation 2013 ).

Art creates representational models for social relations

Art frequently represents social relations. Over time, images are internalised as people absorb cues that guide behaviour and ensure conduct appropriate to a given social setting. Bourdieu's ( Citation 1977 ) insightful analysis of habitus made clear that children and others learn by doing (and by observing others), rather than through direct instruction. Since art objects are often lasting, durable, and visible, they reinforce a vision of ‘the way things are’ that may be difficult to contest. This dynamic encompasses varied aspects of identity and social conduct as prescribed by gender, age, social position, or ritual status. Many images are ideologically loaded, such as the Greek red-figure drinking cup in Figure 8 , which inculcates the privileged position of males, depicted here sharing drink in the ritualised male-only setting of a symposium.

Figure 8.  Greek red-figure cup with scene of male bonding in ritualised drinking at symposium, Vulci, Italy. British Museum 1836,0224.212. Image: © The British Museum.

Even more common is the commissioning of richly detailed and aesthetically pleasing art objects, made from rare materials by skilled artisans, to legitimate the privileged position of elites. Veblen's ( Citation 1899 ) insightful comments about conspicuous consumption resonate particularly well with the crafts produced for elites in many archaic states, including those of coastal Peru before the Incas. Figure 9 shows an image in silver of a ruler seated on a throne, its iconographic theme of hierarchy meshing seamlessly with the use of privileged materials such as rare metals and the virtuosic skill of Chimu artisans.

Figure 9.  Silver ‘throne vessel’ depicting hierarchical group, fifteenth century, Chimu, Peru. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969 (1978.412.170). Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Art is also almost always concerned with the wider social group, promoting ideas about the nature of the collectivity through representation (temporary or lasting) or by inviting participation in an event (a rite, a moment of creative activity, or a shared experience of viewing and appreciating) (DeMarrais Citation 2011 ). Figure 10 shows La Venta Offering 4 from pre-Hispanic lowland Mexico, shown here during its excavation, rightly famous for its revealing insight into Olmec social relations and ritual. Like many other works of art from around the world, it represents a moment when people are assembled to create a group, highlighting an idealised collectivity as a model for social participation. Spielmann ( Citation 2013 ) devotes considerable attention to this potential role for art, as part of ritual, in generating cohesion among Hopewell villages and for bolstering the claims of ritual specialists.

Figure 10.  La Venta Offering 4, Mexico, showing a leader conducting a group ritual, Olmec, Formative Period. Photo: John Clark and Pierre Agrinier.

Art as cultural capital

Art also represents cultural capital – concentrated, privileged access to items of value. In this sense, art can be a vocabulary for the shared habitus of members of the same social class, a tangible yet dynamic means for relating or dividing groups. This may often be simply through shared styles or ways of doing things. Farbstein ( Citation 2013 ), for example, shows how small prehistoric communities creatively formulated different artistic representations as part of creating local networks of shared identity.

In class-stratified societies or power-laden colonial relations, art has the capacity to unite, divide, or position people (Bourdieu Citation 1984 ), since not all people are equally able to decode or to appreciate art and since art may be used to encode values privileging dominant groups. Herring ( Citation 2013 ) eloquently traces the ways that Andean art has been appropriated, and misunderstood, in the unfolding discourses of Western Modernist art history. Architectural styles provide a particularly prominent way of asserting cultural capital; in recent European and American history, for example, there have been two architectures of power: the Classical and the Gothic. Both were deliberately revived and reworked to be widely used in public buildings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ( Figure 11 ), asserting institutional legitimacy by evoking the imagined splendours of a Classical or medieval past.

Figure 11.  Senate House, University of Cambridge (1730): as on many university campuses the Classical columns and façade proclaim the university's role as heir of ancient Greek civilisation, as well as partaking in a more general architectural aesthetic of power. Photo: J. Robb.

Maya art is similarly well-known for evoking a world of privilege and power surrounding elites and their entourages. Evidence increasingly suggests that Maya elites were in some cases also the artisans. Inomata argues that craft production by elites during the Classic Period ‘… was at once a highly political act closely tied to power and an expression of elites ascribing to cultural and aesthetic values’ ( Citation 2007 , 137). He suggests that the willingness of high-status individuals to engage in demanding craft production work is evidence of their commitment to cultural ideals. Figure 12 shows a relief panel depicting a ruler in full regalia. Both the personae represented and the creation, control and use of such objects tied high status people to a world of symbolic capital. Virtually all ancient civilisations, from the Egyptians through the Incas, engaged in a similar materialisation of the cultural capital of their rulers in large-scale or finely-worked art.

Figure 12.  Classic Maya relief with enthroned ruler. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1047). Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Art as a medium of exclusion, resistance, or layered meanings

Art does not simply present and reinforce dominant ideologies or assert social models; it may contain hidden, layered, or contested messages or meanings. Likewise, the knowledge asserted in (or by) an artwork may be contested. For example, Brumfiel ( Citation 1996 ) provides a compelling case that healthy-looking, standing female figurines, produced by local communities in the Aztec hinterland, were intentional forms of alternative art, produced in response to negative depictions of women (often shown dismembered or kneeling in submission) promulgated as part of the Aztec imperial ideology.

Arts of protest and resistance are two manifestations of this phenomenon. Both may be expressed through unsanctioned, counter-authoritarian genres. The graffiti example above seems innocent of political critique, but graffiti and defacement often express political sentiments. The spray can may be an ubiquitous tool for contemporary dissent, and sometimes this contestation of meaning is intentionally foregrounded in art. In a recent article on the BBC website, the artist Antony Gormley described his experience of erecting an early sculpture of a life-size human figure in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1987, during the Troubles, a time of often violent political conflict (McCann Citation 2011 ). Intending his work to be ‘a poultice, and a benign piece that related to the feelings of the people in that place and their situation’, he remembers the vigorous attack on the work as it was being placed in the ground. ‘They were throwing stones and sticks and then spitting on the sculpture. The sculpture came over the top dripping with saliva, the missiles kept coming.’ The work was eventually doused in petrol and set alight. Gormley continues, ‘This was excellent. This was the work as poultice throwing violence and evil onto itself that would otherwise be experienced in other ways.’

Moreover, art allows ambiguity, or layers of interpretation, that facilitate multiple understandings, as explored in Robinson's article ( Citation 2013 ) on the significance of graffiti in Barcelona. Ambiguous or multi-layered imagery is common in the European medieval period, for instance, where images may express visual puns. An artist might playfully portray himself (or others) in mythological or Biblical scenes in a manner undetectable to those unfamiliar with his visage, giving the work both public and personal significance. Medieval manuscript illuminations and woodcarvings often show obscene or grotesque imagery in the margins of sacred texts or settings. For instance, underneath a carved church seat from King's Lynn, England, lurk two grylluses ( Figure 13 ), imaginary creatures thought to embody humans’ baser instincts, a suggestion underlined by their ambiguously phallic noses and by their intended proximity to churchgoers’ backsides. Is this the illustration of an obscure theological text? Satire? Permissible playfulness? The answer may have been as ambiguous to medieval people as it remains to us.

Figure 13.  Hidden misericord imagery on the bottom of a carved wooden church seat, King's Lynn, England, fourteenth century. Victoria and Albert Museum W.7-1921. Image: © Victoria and Albert Museum.

We have argued, through examples from past and present, that art is deeply embedded in everyday life as well as integral to special occasions of ritual, political or biographical importance. As one would expect from a profoundly varied phenomenon, no single explanation can encompass the diverse ways that art establishes, sustains, or transforms social relations. Through its making, using, and display, art helps people share underlying understandings of the world, allows individuals and groups to create and express values, to assert social capital, and – finally – art creates venues and media for the performance of identities and social relations. In the collected articles of this issue, contributors illustrate these varied perspectives; the case studies range across world archaeology from Palaeolithic to historic periods.

Elizabeth DeMarrais and John Robb teach archaeology in the Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Working in the Americas and Europe, respectively, they share broad interests in art, material culture, theory and social relations in the past. Two years ago, they established a Material Culture Laboratory to provide a setting for students and researchers interested in theory and material culture to meet and to exchange ideas in an interdisciplinary setting. The current collection of papers was initially presented as part of a symposium entitled ‘Art Makes Society’, organised for the Society for American Archaeology meeting in April 2012, in Memphis, TN, USA.

We are grateful to John Clark and Pierre Agrinier for permission to use Figure 10 , to Johanna Farr for the use of Figure 1 , and to Robert Mark and Evelyn Billo of Rupestrian CyberServices for use of Figure 2 . We thank The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Victoria and Albert Museum for use of varied images as noted in the captions, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. We thank George Lau and Veronica Sekules for their editorial oversight and helpful comments.

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Introduction

Art is the expression of one’s views and feelings, which may take many forms like dance, music, painting , literature or theatre. By seeing the art of a particular country, we can easily understand its inherent culture. Thus, it is right to say that art and culture play a great role in the growth of a country. When people share common beliefs, attitudes and values, it becomes the culture of that nation, which artists try to capture and manifest through their art.

India is a country that is rich in diverse culture and art. With many communities coexisting with each other, one can witness the diversity in languages and beliefs of the country. The essay on Indian art and culture will be useful for students to familiarise themselves with the distinct features of India’s unique culture and art.

India’s Art and Culture

Just like there are many beautiful flowers in different shapes and colours in a garden , India also has such variety in art and culture. Although people in India follow different cultures, all of them live together in harmony, and this is what sets India apart from other countries. Each state in the country has a distinct culture or tradition, which is passed down to them by their ancestors. We will go through the diversity of India in this art and culture essay.

Interestingly, the language also varies from state to state. Despite these differences, the people of India live in unity and peace as they respect and love each other.

Indian clothing is another important factor that defines the country’s culture. The style of clothing differs according to the geographical place they live in, and yet, they contribute to the culture of the country.

Art is closely related to the culture of a country as they speak about the rich heritage of the nation. Indian art has many forms to which many notable personalities have contributed. If we are familiar with the works of Raja Ravi Varma or Rabindranath Tagore, it reveals that they have been successful in portraying Indian culture through their art. Being one of the oldest cultures, India’s culture reminds us of the virtues of unity and integrity in this essay on Indian art and culture. Let us also teach our children more about our nation through these interesting sets of GK questions .

Importance of Art and Culture

Art and culture are the identity of a nation, which helps us to understand the world around us better. As it brings people together, it offers us the opportunity to learn from each other and understand how there is unity even in diversity. Moreover, art and culture help in building the country as they preserve our heritage and creativity. Indian art and culture are what keep us binding together, and we are proud of it.

You can find more essays similar to the art essay on BYJU’S website. Also, you can explore a range of kid-friendly learning resources, such as short stories, poems, worksheets, etc., for little learners on the website.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is india rich in art and culture.

India is a multicultural country that practises different art forms like dance, music, theatre, sculpting, painting, etc. Many notable names are associated with Indian art as they have contributed immensely to their fields. In addition, India’s culture is ingrained in its different religious practices and festivals celebrated by all.

What are the different languages spoken in India?

Since India is a diverse country, many languages are spoken in the country. Some languages spoken in India include Bengali, Hindi, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Urdu and Konkani, among many others.

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IELTS Essay on Art and Culture: Samples

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Updated on 31 July, 2024

Sunita Kadian

Ielts expert.

The essays in International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exams come with specific themes and topics that aspirants have to write on. IELTS essay on Art and Culture   is one of the common topics that you can practice while preparing for the IELTS exam. The minimum word limit for it is 250 words, while there is no upper limit. Candidates should aim to complete the essays within a maximum of 40 minutes.

Table of Contents

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Why Should Current Education Models Include Art and Culture?

Art is so much more than a medium of expression. While it helps local craftspeople promote their creativity and culture, developing synergy between different communities is essential. Beyond culture, art also promotes people's cognitive abilities and critical skills, especially in children. If art is excluded from the academic curriculum, a child will face difficulties adapting to new cultures and environments. 

Art helps the younger generation adopt a diverse opinion set and successfully influences people towards the roots of society. It is also scientifically proven that art can help in reducing interdisciplinary actions, increasing attendance, and helping kids respond better in classrooms. However, some people can argue against the cause by replacing art lessons with academic concepts. In my opinion, eliminating art from school programs is another way to invite trouble and make education boring. With art, kids have the opportunity to bond with each other and creatively present their ideas. 

It is believed that children have gifted creative abilities, and regular art lessons can help stimulate their intellect. In the earlier stages of life, kids often find it challenging to catch up with linguistic capabilities and problem-solving skills. However, art helps simplify basic concepts, thus strengthening their overall academic acumen. It does not mean that academics should entirely be replaced by art. Both entities are equally important and must be essential for school coursework. However, if taught together, academics and art can bring a new change in a kid's life by giving them a healthy balance of all subjects. 

Apart from academic development, art is also linked to improved emotional intelligence in children. All art forms help stimulate emotions and present 21st-century educators with an innovative way to help kids think better. Teachers can also use art to explain scientific topics in an improved manner. For example, kids are more likely to learn basic mathematics if they see diagrammatic representation rather than just writing numbers on their notebooks. 

To conclude, we can say that schools must include art in the coursework. While some people believe it will distract and poorly affect kids' grades, it is not entirely true. Art helps kids connect with their culture at the root level and brings a sense of belonging. Overall, students can also express their values more clearly, thus making it easy for parents and teachers to track their progress.

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More and More People are Turning Towards Technology and Business. How and Why should we Promote Art and Culture?

Art has presented a medium for different cultures to express their values and connect. As a result, we come across an array of art forms all across the globe. All these forms are interrelated and possess similarities and dissimilarities. While art has played a crucial role in connecting society, we also notice more people turning to science, technology, and business sectors. 

This shift in priorities can be attributed to the lack of basic infrastructure and an everlasting need to improve the lifestyle. People believe that art is a mere expression form and not a means of adding value and character to their lives. While it is easy to admire a canvas painting or a marble sculpture, it does not improve the way our society operates. For example, a science degree is likely to get a well-paid job in a multinational corporation compared to an art degree. However, it is not entirely true. Art has given most communities a way to sustain their cultural values. Additionally, it has also been a source of revenue for underprivileged communities and resulted in their cultural and financial empowerment. Therefore, authorities must take the proper steps to promote and revive gradually disappearing art forms. 

Government can take the much-needed steps to promote art by organizing cultural events and opening more national galleries. A formal acknowledgment and celebration of the art form will help create more awareness of the cause. 

While technology has presented people with a way to connect, it has also created a more extensive community divide by acting as a two-edged sword. Art can help fill that void and bring together a larger proportion of people. Technology has made all forms of content more accessible. It has ultimately resulted in shorter attention spans. But with the promotion of art and culture at the root level, we can expect more development in our cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills. 

In conclusion, we can safely say that art is losing popularity and importance as it does not help people scale their careers. However, there is a growing need for the promotion of art. It helps us connect to our cultural roots and presents us with a way to express our thoughts and ideas. Government should focus on allotting a separate budget for the art and culture sector and provide more job opportunities in the same field. 

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Sunita Kadian, co-founder and Academic Head at Yuno Learning is an expert in IELTS and English communication. With a background in competitive exam preparation (IELTS, GMAT, CAT, TOEFL), interview prep, and corporate soft skills training, she has adapted these programs for the Yuno platform. Her dedication and commitment earned high praise from students, especially for her public speaking and advanced speaking English courses. Sunita's mastery of language nuances and articulation makes her a favorite among IELTS students. She holds a Postgraduate degree in English Literature, a B.Ed., and a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Relations.

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The Value of Art Why should we care about art?

One of the first questions raised when talking about art is simple—why should we care? Art in the contemporary era is easy to dismiss as a selfish pastime for people who have too much time on their hands. Creating art doesn't cure disease, build roads, or feed the poor. So to understand the value of art, let’s look at how art has been valued through history and consider how it is valuable today.

The value of creating

At its most basic level, the act of creating is rewarding in itself. Children draw for the joy of it before they can speak, and creating pictures, sculptures and writing is both a valuable means of communicating ideas and simply fun. Creating is instinctive in humans, for the pleasure of exercising creativity. While applied creativity is valueable in a work context, free-form creativity leads to new ideas.

Material value

Through the ages, art has often been created from valuable materials. Gold , ivory and gemstones adorn medieval crowns , and even the paints used by renaissance artists were made from rare materials like lapis lazuli , ground into pigment. These objects have creative value for their beauty and craftsmanship, but they are also intrinsically valuable because of the materials they contain.

Historical value

Artwork is a record of cultural history. Many ancient cultures are entirely lost to time except for the artworks they created, a legacy that helps us understand our human past. Even recent work can help us understand the lives and times of its creators, like the artwork of African-American artists during the Harlem Renaissance . Artwork is inextricably tied to the time and cultural context it was created in, a relationship called zeitgeist , making art a window into history.

Religious value

For religions around the world, artwork is often used to illustrate their beliefs. Depicting gods and goddesses, from Shiva to the Madonna , make the concepts of faith real to the faithful. Artwork has been believed to contain the spirits of gods or ancestors, or may be used to imbue architecture with an aura of awe and worship like the Badshahi Mosque .

Patriotic value

Art has long been a source of national pride, both as an example of the skill and dedication of a country’s artisans and as expressions of national accomplishments and history, like the Arc de Triomphe , a heroic monument honoring the soldiers who died in the Napoleonic Wars. The patriotic value of art slides into propaganda as well, used to sway the populace towards a political agenda.

Symbolic value

Art is uniquely suited to communicating ideas. Whether it’s writing or painting or sculpture, artwork can distill complex concepts into symbols that can be understood, even sometimes across language barriers and cultures. When art achieves symbolic value it can become a rallying point for a movement, like J. Howard Miller’s 1942 illustration of Rosie the Riveter, which has become an icon of feminism and women’s economic impact across the western world.

Societal value

And here’s where the rubber meets the road: when we look at our world today, we see a seemingly insurmountable wave of fear, bigotry, and hatred expressed by groups of people against anyone who is different from them. While issues of racial and gender bias, homophobia and religious intolerance run deep, and have many complex sources, much of the problem lies with a lack of empathy. When you look at another person and don't see them as human, that’s the beginning of fear, violence and war. Art is communication. And in the contemporary world, it’s often a deeply personal communication. When you create art, you share your worldview, your history, your culture and yourself with the world. Art is a window, however small, into the human struggles and stories of all people. So go see art, find art from other cultures, other religions, other orientations and perspectives. If we learn about each other, maybe we can finally see that we're all in this together. Art is a uniquely human expression of creativity. It helps us understand our past, people who are different from us, and ultimately, ourselves.

Reed Enger, "The Value of Art, Why should we care about art?," in Obelisk Art History , Published June 24, 2017; last modified November 08, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/essays/the-value-of-art/.

Introduction to Art

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The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays on Art, Culture, and Literature

• José Ortega y Gasset
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Copyright year: 1969
• Audience: General/trade;
• Main content: 224
• Keywords: Philosophy ; Consciousness ; Thought ; Philosopher ; Sensibility ; Romanticism ; Literature ; Theory ; Potentiality and actuality ; Cubism ; Good faith ; Martin Heidegger ; Genre ; Phenomenon ; Novelist ; Partisan Review ; Dehumanization ; Classicism ; Ambiguity ; Symptom ; Boredom ; Irony ; Disgust ; Instant ; The Other Hand ; Vulgarity ; The Philosopher ; Form of life (philosophy) ; Writing ; Farce ; Idealism ; Suggestion ; El Greco ; Physiognomy ; German literature ; Reality ; Dynamism (metaphysics) ; Paperback ; Hoax ; Derealization ; Novel ; Metaphor ; Suffering ; Critique of Pure Reason ; Snob ; Work of art ; Pathos ; Surrealism ; Ingredient ; Playwright ; Seriousness ; Narration ; Literary genre ; Melodrama ; Sociology of art ; Tintoretto ; Allusion ; Dime novel ; Visual field ; Biographical novel ; Vocation (poem) ; Cornea ; Idealization ; Relativism ; Primitivism ; Literary criticism ; Stendhal ; Prose ; Baruch Spinoza ; Philistinism
• Published: October 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780691197968

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The Magic of Making

Essays on art and culture.

K. G. Subramanyan

455 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2024

The India List

Art: Art--General Studies

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• Liu Kang: Essays on Art and Culture

In this Book

• Sara Siew , Kang Liu
• Published by: National Gallery Singapore
• View Citation

Table of Contents

• Copyright, Title Page
• Photographs and Other Archival Materials
• Editorial Note
• Cosmopolitanising the Modernised Chinese Painting: Liu Kang on Art
• Yow Siew Kah
• Essays from 1937 to 1950
• Cultivating Art in Singapore: 1937–1950
• The Voice of the Motherland
• Wen Hsi and His Art
• A Self-Sufficient Revival
• Commemorative Post-War Art Festival
• Sunyee and Her Art
• The Arts and Life
• The Strength of Chinese Culture
• Tan Tsze Chor and his Collection of Rare Calligraphy and Paintings
• Essays from 1951 to 1960
• Nanyang Folk Culture in Modern Chinese Art: 1951–1960
• The Art of Zhang Liying [Georgette Chen]
• Trip to Bali
• In Memory of Huang Binhong
• Huang Pao-fang and his Exhibition of Interior Decoration
• Gravel of the River–Nurturing New Life
• Essays from 1961 to 1980
• A Chinese Scholar in Singapore: 1961–1980
• What is the Centre for Southeast Asian Art?
• Foreword for the Society of Chinese Artists' Thirtieth Anniversary Magazine [Excerpt]
• Young Artists: Wee Kong Chai and Yeo Kim Seng
• About Xu Beihong [Excerpt]
• Yeh Chi Wei and the Ten Man Art Exhibition
• Applied Arts and the Future of Our Country
• pp. 105-106
• Chi Wei in the Last Ten Years
• pp. 107-110
• Eastern and Western Cultures, and Art in Singapore
• pp. 111-120
• pp. 121-136
• Fu Lei and Fu Ts'ong
• pp. 137-150
• Music and Painting
• pp. 151-166
• The Definition of an Intellectual
• pp. 167-168
• Liu Haisu and Contemporary Chinese Art
• pp. 169-179
• The State of Art in Singapore and its Future Development
• pp. 180-194
• Chen Jen Hao: Artist and Teacher
• pp. 195-199
• Matisse, Great Master of Twentieth-Century Art
• pp. 200-209
• Ho Ho Ying, Initiator of Modern Art [Excerpt]
• pp. 210-211
• I Love India
• pp. 212-213
• Medical Science and Art
• pp. 214-217
• Modern French Ballet
• pp. 218-221
• Art Exhibition to Commemorate the International Year of Women
• pp. 222-223
• Woodblock Painting: Re-creating Art
• pp. 224-225
• Lien Shih Sheng: A Close Friend
• pp. 226-231
• Minor Paintings
• pp. 232-235
• Chua Soo Pong: As He Is
• pp. 236-238
• The Eleventh National Day Art Exhibition
• pp. 239-241
• Western Painting in Singapore in the Last 45 Years
• pp. 242-249
• pp. 250-256

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armor, 1000–1300, fashion in european armor, 1300–1400, fashion in european armor, 1400–1500, fashion in european armor, 1500–1600, fashion in european armor, 1600–1700, fashion in safavid iran, fatimid jewelry, fell’s cave (9000–8000 b.c.), fernand léger (1881–1955), feudalism and knights in medieval europe, figural representation in islamic art, filippino lippi (ca. 1457–1504), fire gilding of arms and armor, the five wares of south italian vase painting, the flavian dynasty (69–96 a.d.), flemish harpsichords and virginals, flood stories, folios from the great mongol shahnama (book of kings), folios from the jami‘ al-tavarikh (compendium of chronicles), fontainebleau, food and drink in european painting, 1400–1800, foundations of aksumite civilization and its christian legacy (1st–8th century), fra angelico (ca. 1395–1455), francisco de goya (1746–1828) and the spanish enlightenment, françois boucher (1703–1770), frank lloyd wright (1867–1959), frans hals (1582/83–1666), frederic edwin church (1826–1900), frederic remington (1861–1909), frederick william macmonnies (1863–1937), the french academy in rome, french art deco, french art pottery, french decorative arts during the reign of louis xiv (1654–1715), french faience, french furniture in the eighteenth century: case furniture, french furniture in the eighteenth century: seat furniture, french porcelain in the eighteenth century, french silver in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, frescoes and wall painting in late byzantine art, from geometric to informal gardens in the eighteenth century, from italy to france: gardens in the court of louis xiv and after, from model to monument: american public sculpture, 1865–1915, the fulani/fulbe people, the function of armor in medieval and renaissance europe, funerary vases in southern italy and sicily, furnishings during the reign of louis xiv (1654–1715), gabrielle “coco” chanel (1883–1971) and the house of chanel, gardens in the french renaissance, gardens of western europe, 1600–1800, genre painting in northern europe, geometric abstraction, geometric and archaic cyprus, geometric art in ancient greece, geometric patterns in islamic art, george inness (1825–1894), george washington: man, myth, monument, georges seurat (1859–1891) and neo-impressionism, georgia o’keeffe (1887–1986), gerard david (born about 1455, died 1523), german and austrian porcelain in the eighteenth century, the ghent altarpiece, gian lorenzo bernini (1598–1680), gilbert stuart (1755–1828), giovanni battista piranesi (1720–1778), giovanni battista tiepolo (1696–1770), gladiators: types and training, glass from islamic lands, glass ornaments in late antiquity and early islam (ca. 500–1000), glass with mold-blown decoration from islamic lands, the gods and goddesses of canaan, gold in ancient egypt, gold in asante courtly arts, gold in the ancient americas, gold of the indies, the golden age of french furniture in the eighteenth century, the golden harpsichord of michele todini (1616–1690), golden treasures: the royal tombs of silla, goryeo celadon, the grand tour, the graphic art of max klinger, great plains indians musical instruments, great serpent mound, great zimbabwe (11th–15th century), the greater ottoman empire, 1600–1800, greek art in the archaic period, greek gods and religious practices, greek hydriai (water jars) and their artistic decoration, the greek key and divine attributes in modern dress, greek terracotta figurines with articulated limbs, gustave courbet (1819–1877), gustave le gray (1820–1884), hagia sophia, 532–37, the halaf period (6500–5500 b.c.), han dynasty (206 b.c.–220 a.d.), hanae mori (1926–2022), hans talhoffer’s fight book, a sixteenth-century manuscript about the art of fighting, harry burton (1879–1940): the pharaoh’s photographer, hasanlu in the iron age, haute couture, heian period (794–1185), hellenistic and roman cyprus, hellenistic jewelry, hendrick goltzius (1558–1617), henri cartier-bresson (1908–2004), henri de toulouse-lautrec (1864–1901), henri matisse (1869–1954), henry kirke brown (1814–1886), john quincy adams ward (1830–1910), and realism in american sculpture, heroes in italian mythological prints, hinduism and hindu art, hippopotami in ancient egypt, hiram powers (1805–1873), the hittites, the holy roman empire and the habsburgs, 1400–1600, hopewell (1–400 a.d.), horse armor in europe, hot-worked glass from islamic lands, the house of jeanne hallée (1870–1924), the housemistress in new kingdom egypt: hatnefer, how medieval and renaissance tapestries were made, the hudson river school, hungarian silver, icons and iconoclasm in byzantium, the idea and invention of the villa, ife (from ca. 6th century), ife pre-pavement and pavement era (800–1000 a.d.), ife terracottas (1000–1400 a.d.), igbo-ukwu (ca. 9th century), images of antiquity in limoges enamels in the french renaissance, impressionism: art and modernity, in pursuit of white: porcelain in the joseon dynasty, 1392–1910, indian knoll (3000–2000 b.c.), indian textiles: trade and production, indigenous arts of the caribbean, industrialization and conflict in america: 1840–1875, the industrialization of french photography after 1860, inland niger delta, intellectual pursuits of the hellenistic age, intentional alterations of early netherlandish painting, interior design in england, 1600–1800, interiors imagined: folding screens, garments, and clothing stands, international pictorialism, internationalism in the tang dynasty (618–907), introduction to prehistoric art, 20,000–8000 b.c., the isin-larsa and old babylonian periods (2004–1595 b.c.), islamic arms and armor, islamic art and culture: the venetian perspective, islamic art of the deccan, islamic carpets in european paintings, italian painting of the later middle ages, italian porcelain in the eighteenth century, italian renaissance frames, ivory and boxwood carvings, 1450–1800, ivory carving in the gothic era, thirteenth–fifteenth centuries, jacopo dal ponte, called bassano (ca. 1510–1592), jade in costa rica, jade in mesoamerica, jain manuscript painting, jain sculpture, james cox (ca. 1723–1800): goldsmith and entrepreneur, james mcneill whistler (1834–1903), james mcneill whistler (1834–1903) as etcher, jan gossart (ca. 1478–1532) and his circle, jan van eyck (ca. 1390–1441), the japanese blade: technology and manufacture, japanese illustrated handscrolls, japanese incense, the japanese tea ceremony, japanese weddings in the edo period (1615–1868), japanese writing boxes, jasper johns (born 1930), jean antoine houdon (1741–1828), jean honoré fragonard (1732–1806), jean-baptiste carpeaux (1827–1875), jean-baptiste greuze (1725–1805), jewish art in late antiquity and early byzantium, jews and the arts in medieval europe, jews and the decorative arts in early modern italy, jiahu (ca. 7000–5700 b.c.), joachim tielke (1641–1719), joan miró (1893–1983), johannes vermeer (1632–1675), johannes vermeer (1632–1675) and the milkmaid, john constable (1776–1837), john frederick kensett (1816–1872), john singer sargent (1856–1925), john singleton copley (1738–1815), john townsend (1733–1809), jōmon culture (ca. 10,500–ca. 300 b.c.), joseon buncheong ware: between celadon and porcelain, joseph mallord william turner (1775–1851), juan de flandes (active by 1496, died 1519), julia margaret cameron (1815–1879), the julio-claudian dynasty (27 b.c.–68 a.d.), kamakura and nanbokucho periods (1185–1392), the kano school of painting, kingdoms of madagascar: malagasy funerary arts, kingdoms of madagascar: malagasy textile arts, kingdoms of madagascar: maroserana and merina, kingdoms of the savanna: the kuba kingdom, kingdoms of the savanna: the luba and lunda empires, kings and queens of egypt, kings of brightness in japanese esoteric buddhist art, the kirtlington park room, oxfordshire, the kithara in ancient greece, kodak and the rise of amateur photography, kofun period (ca. 300–710), kongo ivories, korean buddhist sculpture (5th–9th century), korean munbangdo paintings, kushan empire (ca. second century b.c.–third century a.d.), la venta: sacred architecture, la venta: stone sculpture, the labors of herakles, lacquerware of east asia, landscape painting in chinese art, landscape painting in the netherlands, the lansdowne dining room, london, lapita pottery (ca. 1500–500 b.c.), lascaux (ca. 15,000 b.c.), late eighteenth-century american drawings, late medieval german sculpture, late medieval german sculpture: images for the cult and for private devotion, late medieval german sculpture: materials and techniques, late medieval german sculpture: polychromy and monochromy, the later ottomans and the impact of europe, le colis de trianon-versailles and paris openings, the legacy of genghis khan, the legacy of jacques louis david (1748–1825), leonardo da vinci (1452–1519), letterforms and writing in contemporary art, life of jesus of nazareth, life of the buddha, list of rulers of ancient egypt and nubia, list of rulers of ancient sudan, list of rulers of byzantium, list of rulers of china, list of rulers of europe, list of rulers of japan, list of rulers of korea, list of rulers of mesopotamia, list of rulers of south asia, list of rulers of the ancient greek world, list of rulers of the islamic world, list of rulers of the parthian empire, list of rulers of the roman empire, list of rulers of the sasanian empire, lithography in the nineteenth century, longevity in chinese art, louis comfort tiffany (1848–1933), louis-rémy robert (1810–1882), lovers in italian mythological prints, the lure of montmartre, 1880–1900, luxury arts of rome, lydenburg heads (ca. 500 a.d.), lydia and phrygia, made in india, found in egypt: red sea textile trade in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, made in italy: italian fashion from 1950 to now, the magic of signs and patterns in north african art, maiolica in the renaissance, mal’ta (ca. 20,000 b.c.), mangarevan sculpture, the manila galleon trade (1565–1815), mannerism: bronzino (1503–1572) and his contemporaries, the mantiq al-tair (language of the birds) of 1487, manuscript illumination in italy, 1400–1600, manuscript illumination in northern europe, mapungubwe (ca. 1050–1270), marcel duchamp (1887–1968), maria monaci gallenga (1880–1944), mary stevenson cassatt (1844–1926), the master of monte oliveto (active about 1305–35), the materials and techniques of american quilts and coverlets, the materials and techniques of english embroidery of the late tudor and stuart eras, mauryan empire (ca. 323–185 b.c.), medicine in classical antiquity, medicine in the middle ages, medieval aquamanilia, medieval european sculpture for buildings, medusa in ancient greek art, mendicant orders in the medieval world, the mesoamerican ballgame, mesopotamian creation myths, mesopotamian deities, mesopotamian magic in the first millennium b.c., the metropolitan museum’s excavations at nishapur, the metropolitan museum’s excavations at ctesiphon, the metropolitan museum’s excavations at qasr-i abu nasr, michiel sweerts and biblical subjects in dutch art, the middle babylonian / kassite period (ca. 1595–1155 b.c.) in mesopotamia, military music in american and european traditions, ming dynasty (1368–1644), minoan crete, mission héliographique, 1851, miyake, kawakubo, and yamamoto: japanese fashion in the twentieth century, moche decorated ceramics, moche portrait vessels, modern and contemporary art in iran, modern art in india, modern art in west and east pakistan, modern art in west asia: colonial to post-colonial, modern materials: plastics, modern storytellers: romare bearden, jacob lawrence, faith ringgold, momoyama period (1573–1615), monasticism in western medieval europe, the mon-dvaravati tradition of early north-central thailand, the mongolian tent in the ilkhanid period, monte albán, monte albán: sacred architecture, monte albán: stone sculpture, monumental architecture of the aksumite empire, the monumental stelae of aksum (3rd–4th century), mosaic glass from islamic lands, mountain and water: korean landscape painting, 1400–1800, muromachi period (1392–1573), music and art of china, music in ancient greece, music in the ancient andes, music in the renaissance, musical instruments of oceania, musical instruments of the indian subcontinent, musical terms for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, mycenaean civilization, mystery cults in the greek and roman world, nabataean kingdom and petra, the nabis and decorative painting, nadar (1820–1910), the nahal mishmar treasure, nature in chinese culture, the nature of islamic art, the neoclassical temple, neoclassicism, neolithic period in china, nepalese painting, nepalese sculpture, netsuke: from fashion fobs to coveted collectibles, new caledonia, the new documentary tradition in photography, new ireland, new vision photography, a new visual language transmitted across asia, the new york dutch room, nicolas poussin (1594–1665), nineteenth-century american drawings, nineteenth-century american folk art, nineteenth-century american jewelry, nineteenth-century american silver, nineteenth-century classical music, nineteenth-century court arts in india, nineteenth-century english silver, nineteenth-century european textile production, nineteenth-century french realism, nineteenth-century iran: art and the advent of modernity, nineteenth-century iran: continuity and revivalism, nineteenth-century silhouette and support, nok terracottas (500 b.c.–200 a.d.), northern italian renaissance painting, northern mannerism in the early sixteenth century, northern song dynasty (960–1127), northwest coast indians musical instruments, the nude in baroque and later art, the nude in the middle ages and the renaissance, the nude in western art and its beginnings in antiquity, nudity and classical themes in byzantine art, nuptial furnishings in the italian renaissance, the old assyrian period (ca. 2000–1600 b.c.), orientalism in nineteenth-century art, orientalism: visions of the east in western dress, the origins of writing, ottonian art, pablo picasso (1881–1973), pachmari hills (ca. 9000–3000 b.c.), painted funerary monuments from hellenistic alexandria, painting formats in east asian art, painting in italian choir books, 1300–1500, painting in oil in the low countries and its spread to southern europe, painting the life of christ in medieval and renaissance italy, paintings of love and marriage in the italian renaissance, paolo veronese (1528–1588), the papacy and the vatican palace, the papacy during the renaissance, papyrus in ancient egypt, papyrus-making in egypt, the parthian empire (247 b.c.–224 a.d.), pastoral charms in the french renaissance, patronage at the early valois courts (1328–1461), patronage at the later valois courts (1461–1589), patronage of jean de berry (1340–1416), paul cézanne (1839–1906), paul gauguin (1848–1903), paul klee (1879–1940), paul poiret (1879–1944), paul revere, jr. (1734–1818), paul strand (1890–1976), period of the northern and southern dynasties (386–581), peter paul rubens (1577–1640) and anthony van dyck (1599–1641): paintings, peter paul rubens (1577–1640) and anthony van dyck (1599–1641): works on paper, petrus christus (active by 1444, died 1475/76), the phoenicians (1500–300 b.c.), photographers in egypt, photography and surrealism, photography and the civil war, 1861–65, photography at the bauhaus, photography in düsseldorf, photography in europe, 1945–60, photography in postwar america, 1945-60, photography in the expanded field: painting, performance, and the neo-avant-garde, photojournalism and the picture press in germany, phrygia, gordion, and king midas in the late eighth century b.c., the piano: the pianofortes of bartolomeo cristofori (1655–1731), the piano: viennese instruments, pictorialism in america, the pictures generation, pierre bonnard (1867–1947): the late interiors, pierre didot the elder (1761–1853), pieter bruegel the elder (ca. 1525–1569), pilgrimage in medieval europe, poetic allusions in the rajput and pahari painting of india, poets in italian mythological prints, poets, lovers, and heroes in italian mythological prints, polychrome sculpture in spanish america, polychromy of roman marble sculpture, popular religion: magical uses of imagery in byzantine art, portrait painting in england, 1600–1800, portraits of african leadership, portraits of african leadership: living rulers, portraits of african leadership: memorials, portraits of african leadership: royal ancestors, portraiture in renaissance and baroque europe, the portuguese in africa, 1415–1600, post-impressionism, postmodernism: recent developments in art in india, postmodernism: recent developments in art in pakistan and bangladesh, post-revolutionary america: 1800–1840, the postwar print renaissance in america, poverty point (2000–1000 b.c.), the praenestine cistae, prague during the rule of rudolf ii (1583–1612), prague, 1347–1437, pre-angkor traditions: the mekong delta and peninsular thailand, precisionism, prehistoric cypriot art and culture, prehistoric stone sculpture from new guinea, the pre-raphaelites, presidents of the united states of america, the print in the nineteenth century, the printed image in the west: aquatint, the printed image in the west: drypoint, the printed image in the west: engraving, the printed image in the west: etching, the printed image in the west: history and techniques, the printed image in the west: mezzotint, the printed image in the west: woodcut, printmaking in mexico, 1900–1950, private devotion in medieval christianity, profane love and erotic art in the italian renaissance, the pyramid complex of senwosret iii, dahshur, the pyramid complex of senwosret iii, dahshur: private tombs to the north, the pyramid complex of senwosret iii, dahshur: queens and princesses, the pyramid complex of senwosret iii, dahshur: temples, qin dynasty (221–206 b.c.), the qing dynasty 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1839–55, the rock-hewn churches of lalibela, roger fenton (1819–1869), the roman banquet, roman cameo glass, roman copies of greek statues, roman egypt, the roman empire (27 b.c.–393 a.d.), roman games: playing with animals, roman glass, roman gold-band glass, roman housing, roman inscriptions, roman luxury glass, roman mold-blown glass, roman mosaic and network glass, roman painting, roman portrait sculpture: republican through constantinian, roman portrait sculpture: the stylistic cycle, the roman republic, roman sarcophagi, roman stuccowork, romanesque art, romanticism, saint petersburg, saints and other sacred byzantine figures, saints in medieval christian art, the salon and the royal academy in the nineteenth century, san ethnography, sanford robinson gifford (1823–1880), the sasanian empire (224–651 a.d.), scenes of everyday life in ancient greece, scholar-officials of china, school of paris, seasonal imagery in japanese art, the seleucid empire (323–64 b.c.), senufo arts and poro initiation in northern côte d’ivoire, senufo sculpture from west africa: an influential exhibition at the museum of primitive art, new york, 1963, seventeenth-century european watches, the severan dynasty (193–235 a.d.), sèvres porcelain in the nineteenth century, shah ‘abbas and the arts of isfahan, the shah jahan album, the shahnama of shah tahmasp, shaker furniture, shakespeare and art, 1709–1922, shakespeare portrayed, shang and zhou dynasties: the bronze age of china, shoes in the costume institute, shōguns and art, shunga dynasty (ca. second–first century b.c.), sienese painting, silk textiles from safavid iran, 1501–1722, silks from ottoman turkey, silver in ancient egypt, sixteenth-century painting in emilia-romagna, sixteenth-century painting in lombardy, sixteenth-century painting in venice and the veneto, the solomon islands, south asian art and culture, southern italian vase painting, southern song dynasty (1127–1279), the spanish guitar, spiritual power in the arts of the toba batak, stained (luster-painted) glass from islamic lands, stained glass in medieval europe, still-life painting in northern europe, 1600–1800, still-life painting in southern europe, 1600–1800, the structure of photographic metaphors, students of benjamin west (1738–1820), the symposium in ancient greece, takht-i sulaiman and tilework in the ilkhanid period, talavera de puebla, tanagra figurines, tang dynasty (618–907), the technique of bronze statuary in ancient greece, techniques of decoration on arms and armor, telling time in ancient egypt, tenochtitlan, tenochtitlan: templo mayor, teotihuacan: mural painting, teotihuacan: pyramids of the sun and the moon, textile production in europe: embroidery, 1600–1800, textile production in europe: lace, 1600–1800, textile production in europe: printed, 1600–1800, textile production in europe: silk, 1600–1800, theater and amphitheater in the roman world, theater in ancient greece, theseus, hero of athens, thomas chippendale’s 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postmodern legacy of punk style, wadi kubbaniya (ca. 17,000–15,000 b.c.), walker evans (1903–1975), wang hui (1632–1717), warfare in ancient greece, watercolor painting in britain, 1750–1850, ways of recording african history, weddings in the italian renaissance, west asia: ancient legends, modern idioms, west asia: between tradition and modernity, west asia: postmodernism, the diaspora, and women artists, william blake (1757–1827), william henry fox talbot (1800–1877) and the invention of photography, william merritt chase (1849–1916), winslow homer (1836–1910), wisteria dining room, paris, women artists in nineteenth-century france, women china decorators, women in classical greece, women leaders in african history, 17th–19th century, women leaders in african history: ana nzinga, queen of ndongo, women leaders in african history: dona beatriz, kongo prophet, women leaders in african history: idia, first queen mother of benin, woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style, woodcut book illustration in renaissance italy: florence in the 1490s, woodcut book illustration in renaissance italy: the first illustrated books, woodcut book illustration in renaissance italy: venice in the 1490s, woodcut book illustration in renaissance italy: venice in the sixteenth century, wordplay in twentieth-century prints, work and leisure: eighteenth-century genre painting in korea, x-ray style in arnhem land rock art, yamato-e painting, yangban: the cultural life of the joseon literati, yayoi culture (ca. 300 b.c.–300 a.d.), the year one, years leading to the iranian revolution, 1960–79, yuan dynasty (1271–1368), zen buddhism, 0 && essaysctrl.themev == 'departments / collections' && essaysctrl.deptv == null">, departments / collections '">.

The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays on Art, Culture, and Literature

• José Ortega y Gasset

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No work of Spanish philosopher and essayist José Ortega y Gasset has been more frequently cited, admired, or criticized than his defense of modernism, “The Dehumanization of Art.” In the essay, originally published in Spanish in 1925, Ortega grappled philosophically with the newness of nonrepresentational art and sought to make it more understandable to a public confused by it. Many embraced the essay as a manifesto extolling the virtues of vanguard artists and promoting their efforts to abandon the realism and the romanticism of the nineteenth century. The “dehumanization” of the title, which was meant descriptively rather than pejoratively, referred most literally to the absence of human forms in nonrepresentational art, but also to its insistent unpopularity, its indifference to the past, and its iconoclasm. Ortega championed what he saw as a new cultural politics with the goal of a total transformation of society. Ortega was an immensely gifted writer in the best belletristic tradition. His work has been compared to an iceberg because it hides the critical mass of its erudition beneath the surface, and because it is deceptive, appearing to be more spontaneous and informal than it really is. Princeton published the first English translation of the essay paired with another entitled “Notes on the Novel.” Three essays were later added to make an expanded edition, published in 1968, under the title The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays on Art, Culture and Literature .

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Pleasure and pain

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Essay on Indian Art and Culture

Students are often asked to write an essay on Indian Art and Culture in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Indian Art and Culture

Introduction.

Indian Art and Culture is a rich tapestry of diverse traditions, practices, and art forms. It has been shaped by the country’s long history and unique geographical features.

Indian Art manifests in various forms like paintings, sculptures, and architecture. From the intricate carvings of temples to the vibrant Madhubani paintings, Indian Art is a visual treat.

Indian Culture

Indian Culture is a blend of various customs and traditions. It is reflected in the country’s languages, cuisines, music, dance, and festivals, celebrating India’s diversity.

Indian Art and Culture, with its rich diversity, offers a unique perspective into the country’s history, tradition, and values. It is the soul of India, making it a fascinating country.

250 Words Essay on Indian Art and Culture

Indian Art and Culture is a reflection of the country’s rich and diverse history. It is a blend of various traditions and customs that have evolved over thousands of years.

Indian Art, with its intricate carvings and stunning architecture, is a testament to the creativity and skill of its artisans. The Ajanta-Ellora caves, the Sun Temple at Konark, and the intricate marble carvings of the Taj Mahal are just a few examples. Indian art also extends to a variety of forms including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts, each with its unique style and regional variations.

Indian culture, on the other hand, is a complex amalgamation of diverse customs, traditions, rituals, and philosophies. It is characterized by its religious diversity, linguistic variation, and a wide array of music, dance, and cuisine. The deep-rooted philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity have significantly influenced the cultural fabric of the country.

Interplay of Art and Culture

In India, art and culture are not independent entities but are intertwined in a beautiful tapestry. Art is often a reflection of cultural beliefs and societal norms. The depiction of gods and goddesses in Indian art, the portrayal of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata in various art forms, and the use of art in religious rituals and festivals, all attest to this symbiotic relationship.

Indian Art and Culture, with its rich diversity and deep roots, offers a fascinating study for scholars and enthusiasts alike. It is a testament to India’s historical richness and cultural vibrancy, serving as a bridge between the past and the present.

500 Words Essay on Indian Art and Culture

Indian Art is a diverse and multi-faceted domain, encompassing a wide range of forms, styles, and themes. It ranges from the intricate carvings of ancient temples and the vibrant frescoes of Ajanta and Ellora, to the sophisticated Mughal miniatures and the bold, abstract works of modern and contemporary artists.

Classical Indian art is deeply rooted in religious and philosophical beliefs. The motifs and iconography often depict deities, mythological narratives, and spiritual concepts. The sculptures of Khajuraho, the murals of Ajanta, and the bronze idols of Chola period, all exemplify this spiritual essence.

Indian Culture is a complex mosaic of diverse traditions, rituals, and customs. It is characterized by its pluralistic nature, with numerous languages, religions, and cuisines coexisting harmoniously. The culture is deeply ingrained in everyday life, influencing social norms, moral values, and personal identities.

Religion plays a pivotal role in shaping Indian Culture. The practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Christianity, and Sikhism, among others, have significantly influenced the societal framework, festivals, and rituals.

Indian Art and Culture is a fascinating realm that mirrors the country’s historical evolution, philosophical depth, and social diversity. It is a testament to the country’s resilience in preserving its rich heritage while embracing change and diversity. Understanding and appreciating this dynamic interplay of tradition and modernity is crucial for any comprehensive study of Indian society.

In the face of globalization, it is more important than ever to preserve and promote this cultural wealth. It is not just a matter of national pride, but also a means to foster a more pluralistic, inclusive, and empathetic global society. Through its art and culture, India continues to contribute to the world’s cultural tapestry, underscoring the universal human capacity for creativity, expression, and mutual respect.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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• Academic practice
• General practice
• Task 1 Academic
• Task 1 General
• Task 2 (essay)

Art writing task 2 questions for IELTS

Here you can find common IELTS essay questions for "Art" topic.

For a long time art has been considered an essential part of all cultures in the world. However, nowadays people’s values have changed, and we tend to consider science, technology and business more important than arts.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What can be done to draw people’s attention to art?

The government's investment in arts, music and theatre is a waste of money. Governments should invest these funds in public services instead.

To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Studying art in school improves students' performance in other subjects, because it is easier for multi-skilled students to learn new things. That's why art should be obligatory in schools.

Do you agree or disagree?

Sandra Steinbrecher’s images capture how Chicagoans transformed and preserved the industrial complex into a cultural center.

Documentary photographer Sandra Steinbrecher first stepped onto the property at North Elston Avenue and West Blackhawk Street at the intersection of its past and future. In September 2021, this looming steel structure was no longer the Morton Salt complex, which held the space from 1929 to 2015, and it was not yet the music venue now known as the Salt Shed, which opened in 2022.

Steinbrecher had asked Craig Golden, founder of Blue Star Properties, which owns Salt Shed, if she could walk through with her cameras at the very start of the renovation, when crews were just beginning to disassemble the structure. She had no idea at the time what she would do with the photos she would take, if anything, but she was quickly struck by how momentous the Salt Shed project would be.

She kept returning to the construction site, and the dramatic transformation she documented was recently released by Trope Publishing as a 144-page book, The Salt Shed.

Steinbrecher says the decision to reinvent the facility, with its iconic Morton Salt Girl painted on the roof, illustrates how we can show care for our shared memories and cultural landmarks. 

“When you pay attention or put a light on something, you’re sort of saying, ‘Look what’s here, look at what we did,’” Steinbrecher says. “This building was a classic industrial production shed from the 1920s, but the design and the integrity and the materials were all worth saving — and it’s more than the materials, it’s the memories. People from all generations and all kinds of backgrounds can have an appreciation for this place.”

Steinbrecher photographed the structure from as many angles as she could capture: Under its exposed steel beams, from atop nearby buildings, under its floors and on its roof. She often arrived early to capture not just the workers in action, but the morning light as well. “It was visually very exciting,” she says.

The people working on the site were one of the most invigorating parts of the project for Steinbrecher. She devotes a chapter to them, but they’re present in images throughout the book. 

“I grew to have so much appreciation for the melding of those worlds: architecture and engineering and history and then the trades and laborers,” she says. “Everybody needs everybody, right?”

When workers had downtime, Steinbrecher would chat with them, gaining an appreciation for pride they would take in their work and watching pieces of their personal life trickle in. One day a pipefitter might pull out a note from his 10-year-old daughter with his sandwich. Steinbrecher learned that the plumbing foreman would learn that the plumbing foreman would call his father — a retired plumber himself — nearly each night to discuss what happened onsite that day.

She expected to see the machinery, but she didn’t anticipate the level of hands-on work that was involved. In photographing the workers’ activities — a young woman repainting the towering Morton Salt Girl, the choreographed dance of leveling cement floors — she wanted to draw readers’ eyes to the literal connection people have to their built environment.

Showing people throughout the process of building the Salt Shed also provided perspective to the scale of the structure. In the book, Steinbrecher shows workers fitting tightly into manholes and perched on steel against the city’s skyline. As the story moves toward the venue’s completion, we also begin to see the shift in energy: Laborers hammering through daylight hours give way to electricians knitting together cables later in the day. 

Eventually we see the tone of the space change completely. The book ends at the Salt Shed’s current state as a cultural venue, with images of performers and their audiences both inside the Shed and outside at the Fairgrounds. Here again, Steinbrecher shows the depth of of the building: the people milling about the facility, with skyscrapers and the river looming just behind them. 

In the book’s forward, writer Heidi Stevens says that people now have an opportunity to connect with the past with this reinvented space. Rather than tearing down a structure that thousands have marked on their passage through the city each day, it has been repurposed into a destination itself.

“One of the things I was hoping might happen with this photography and the stories, is that it could make historic preservation come alive for people so that it would feel like something you could do, or you would want to do,” Steinbrecher says. Rather than saving buildings because they were designed by a famous architect or because they were grand civic spaces, she’s hoping the book reminds people to have an appreciation for these equally important industrial structures. And they don’t have to become museums, either. 

“This also is a living, breathing space,” she says. “Now it’s a living landmark. It feels very much alive and full of life.”

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