Solace in the Seemingly Obscure
Feb 6th, 2008 by admin
Modern art is not necessarily about weird shapes and color balances that are supposed to be make no sense to the less creatively blessed. The term refers to an approach or a type of art which captures emotions, themes and abstractions. Modern art helped artists to see things in a fresh new perspective and express them in a way that blasted all conventions. Why would anyone really care about something so enigmatic that swings between the extremes of simplicity and esotericism? Does it really have a relevance to anyone else other than its creator? Actually, yes, especially for people who find themselves to be touched and moved by their own and their fellow human being’s strivings to make sense of chaos that plagues their existence in this world. It is important to realize that that the recent development in art, which is other wise known to be modern movement in art or “new art”, is actually not so different from the older traditional forms. So what exactly is the relevance of this seemingly incomprehensible form of art in the contemporary world? There are quite a few, and some these important because they make use of the intense resilience and emotional strength that it renders to individuals. Even when the pain becomes so intense, that it no longer has access to the consciousness, and the thoughts are so obscure to be understood by fellow men, the urge to create will always persists.
Most of us would have authored the creation of strange, amateur and enigmatic creation when we were kids. Perhaps the thought would have struck you as you strolled through a museum displaying modern art. If you ever happen to be around kids and their parents, it’s rare that you would have missed comments like “What is it” and “Daddy this stuff looks weird”. It’s humorous to see the adults “shushing” their kid’s natural inquisitiveness and blunt question about the silliness of the art. Chances are that even the parents are bewildered by what to make out of the paintings, some of them so simplistic that a four year old kid could have painted it, while some are so outrageously offensive; they ought to be banned from public display.
There might have been instances when you seriously must have entertained a thought on how to make sense of modern art. Most people appreciate classic pieces by Da Vincis and Michelangelos because they have some amount of commonsensical realism attached to them. Quite unlike modern art which appears alien to those unfamiliar with its bizarre visual vocabulary.
Modern art tend to obscure the details in philosophy and history of ideas from the uninitiated. In a nutshell, modern art tries to hold a mirror to the puzzlement that has taken over the minds and psyches of the modern man. If you have an uneasy feeling that this article is trying to transform art into a philosophically pretentious entity, then there is a very good reason for your inquisitive apprehensiveness. Since art can be and most often is, a very simple and fun expression of things that are beautiful and pleasant to look at. However, that is not exactly the concern of this article and its best left at that.
Art therapy is a widely gaining acceptance and being practiced. It serves to enhance an individual’s life by perpetuating and restructuring his/her existence. The fact is art can serve to help a lot of people out there, children afflicted with dyslexia, autism, patients who are mentally ill from schizophrenia-like illness. About 5-15% with schizophrenia and schizophrenia like illness may stop responding to medication and continue to experience symptoms. Art allows the exploration of a patient’s inner realm in a non-threatening way by crafting a therapeutic relationship. It was primarily developed in adult psychiatric units and was designed for patients for whom verbal psychotherapy would be impossible. The best thing is that patients need not have any sort of skill in arts to be able to undergo the therapy.
Kids suffering from Dyslexia and Autism have been known to have benefited greatly from art therapy. Autism is a neurobiological disorder that strikes children during their first three years and affects communication skills, social interaction and cognition. There are no known cause and cure for the disease, but it’s believed to be genetic. The annual cost for supporting individuals with autism can range as high as $90 billion. The central goal of art therapy is to grow trust; unless you have trust you are not going anywhere. Art therapy works by making people trust in themselves and those around them, thus augmenting them with the confidence to push past their fears and take chances. Art Therapy is proven to help kids who have been abused and had difficult life situations or suffer from autism and attention deficit disorder. These rob the children of the basic self esteem and they become withdrawn and depressed. Art Therapy is designed around the belief that creating something helps people feel better, and when people feel better it translates into better performances in other endeavors like academics. The students are exposed to a wide variety of medium from clay to paint to unleash their creativity.
The intellectually disabled groups are particularly difficult to work with using verbal approaches; art therapy serves as a gentle yet effective alternative for the distressed and disturbed individual. It allows the students to travel to different parts of the mind and lives, almost as if on a journey of self–exploration. The message is loud and clear. Students can definitely grow by utilizing options other than a pencil, paper and books. Art serves as a positive vent for kids who are striving to make sense of their own lives and try to find something that was hidden amidst the chaos of their troubled lives.
Where did you get the images in this post from? They’d make for some cool wallpaper.
The first and last picture were the interesting ones. I’ve yet to pinpoint exactly why, but the other two are completely uninteresting while the first one’s bordering on mezmerizing, and the last has some interesting colours. I know that much atleast.
Perhaps because the those two pictures has something instantly, albeit vaguely, recognizable, yet it doesn’t reveal itself immediately when you take a better look. It’s not quite in tune with the article, but that’s the things that occupied my mind when I saw them atleast.