It’s my (very accurate and correct) belief that art doesn’t exist for its own sake.
Art exists to convey meaning.
When creating a painting, taking a photo, or embarking on any other artistic journey, the creator is trying to say something about the world and how they perceive it.
Sure, beauty might play a big part in that. And maybe “beauty for beauty’s sake” could be seen as meaning enough.
I, personally, am a fan of beautiful landscape paintings and photographs, in the vein of Ansel Adams. But for such things to be beautiful, they must conform to artistic conventions and rules of framing. There has to be proper color balance, contrast that causes an interplay between light and shadow, for it to be beautiful and cause a positive reaction in the viewer.
Rules are not always bad. Oftentimes, working within constraints actually leads to real creative talent blossoming.
Art without any rules or structures simply devolves into meaningless chaos, where everyone “brings their own interpretation”. This is complete bullshit.
The above is an excuse peddled by the contemporary art establishment to let lazy, uncreative artists off the hook so they can create ugly, meaningless works of art devoid of any substantial purpose or meaning because these artists have nothing meaningful to say in the first place.
This is why art must exist within certain given forms. Whether these are genres of literature and proper grammar, or artistic rules such as perspective, color balance, and so on. To convey meaning, people need to be able to understand what you’ve made.
If they can’t understand it or don’t “get it”, no meaning has been communicated.
This is where we’re at with modern art. A blank canvas, a boulder, or glasses left in the corner of a museum are all seen as “art” today, where the meaning is whatever you want it to be.
Look for and value real art with real artistic merits. Reject modern art. Find art that has impact, where the artist spent years mastering their craft to produce a piece that meant something and that was made beautifully.
