Humans have been making art since prehistoric times. Clearly, there’s something timeless that draws us to this pursuit.
Perhaps in those early days, people created art simply because there wasn’t much else to do. A way to spend one’s leisure. But today, with endless entertainment and distractions at our fingertips, we still make art. Despite all the alternatives, the impulse remains.
So why make art at all, when it can often be hard, energy draining, and frustrating?
What is the point of art?
Many ideas come to mind when trying to answer that question.
Powerful form of communication
Art is a way to communicate and connect with others. But unlike ordinary language, it carries emotion and resonance. It speaks to us in a way that words alone often cannot.
Think of prose versus poetry, or a speech versus a song. The latter lingers longer in memory. It’s the same reason advertisers use rhyme, rhythm, and melody in slogans. they know that emotion make things stick. I still remember random jingles from childhood commercials; I doubt I would if they’d been read flatly from a script.
Sharing a different point of view
Art also reminds us we’re not alone. It can say, “You’re not the only one who feels this way,” or “Others have faced these struggles too.” In this way, art becomes a kind of emotional support, a companion to the human condition.
It can also uplift us, inspire hope, and even motivate. You might ask, then: why not just write these things in a list and read them when we need encouragement? Because art moves us in a way lists cannot. It’s visceral. It speaks not only to our minds but to our senses.
Create a nice atmosphere
Art can transform space. A single painting on a wall can make a room feel warmer, calmer, or more alive. It changes not only how a place looks, but how it feels.
Self-expression
Art is also a form of self-expression. A way to make our houses feel more like home. It’s the same impulse that drives people to get tattoos or wear t-shirts of their favorite band. Through art, we reveal something about who we are and what we care about.
Drawing Attention
Art can bring attention to what deserves it. It’s a way to highlight something, whether it’s a social issue, a historical event, or a moment worth remembering.
In this sense, art acts like a bookmark in the chaos of life, helping us distinguish what is important from what is fleeting. When expressed in monumental form — a statue, a memorial, or a public installation — art can make remembrance last for generations.
Of course, this isn’t restricted only to rulers commissioning their own statues. Art can just as powerfully honor small, everyday moments. Anything we decide is worth remembering.
Art can even be a form of journalism at times. Photography is great for that, and so are comic artists like Joe Sacco, who document real-world events in powerful visual narratives. But this is not limited to specific mediums and art styles. Picasso’s Guernica captured the horror of the bombing of a small Spanish town masterfully, yet very distinctly from photographs or photorealistic representation.
Attention and Memory
I believe drawing attention is where art’s greatest potential lies.
In simple terms, art is a powerful way to capture attention. And because of that power, it becomes memorable.
While art can certainly teach something new or even serve as propaganda (there’s an entire movement known as “engaged art” devoted to that), its value goes far beyond persuasion or instruction. After all, no one enjoys being preached at: whether it’s through a sermon, a novel, or a song.
In my view, this is art’s main purpose:
To share a different point of view, to bring things to our attention, and to help us remember.
Think of this: our minds are full of information and ideas buried somewhere in our memory. We technically know and understand many things, but we don’t don’t do anything with them; they simply sit there.
In practice, it’s almost as good as if we didn’t have them at all. It’s like the old thought experiment: “If someone screams in a forest and no one hears it, did they really scream?”
Let’s imagine you have a thousand such fragments of knowledge tucked away in your mind. Then one day, you see a piece of art that resonates with one of them. Suddenly, that forgotten idea surfaces and it becomes vivid again, alive in your awareness. It might cross your mind from time to time.
Now imagine that artwork hangs in your house, or it’s a monument in the street, and you look at it everyday. How likely are you to forget that idea again? I’d say, almost never.
That’s a unique power of art in my view: it’s not so much about teaching new things (though it can certainly do that too). It’s about memory. It’s about emphasizing, and bringing attention to things that deserve more of it.
And when I say attention-worthy, I don’t necessarily mean something that will instantly make us happy or solve our problems. It doesn’t have to be practical or functional.
Sometimes we want something calm to soothe us.
Other times, something energetic to motivate us.
At moments, something melancholic to help us process pain.
And sometimes, we simply want to see something beautiful to inspire us: to remind us that nice things still exist.
