Читать книгу Art History For Dummies - Jesse Bryant Wilder - Страница 32

Why do artists make art? To celebrate god, glorify the state, overthrow governments, make people laugh or think, or win fame and fortune? Or do they make art because, for them, creating is like breathing — they have to do it?

Artists create for all these reasons and more. Above all, great artists want to express something deeper than ordinary forms of communication — like talking or writing — can convey. They strive to suggest meanings that are beyond the reach of everyday vocabularies. So they invent visual vocabularies for people to interpret. Each person can “read” this picture language — which doesn’t come with a dictionary — differently.

This difference in the way each person “reads” a piece of art is especially true of art made in the past 500 years. Ancient as well as medieval art (art made before 1400) often had a communal purpose and a common language of symbols that was widely understood; often that communal purpose was linked to religion, ritual, or mythology.