Amanda McQuade

Mrs. Huff
Honors Art IV
30 October 2018

Philosophy of Art: Midterm Exam

It was Pablo Picasso who once said, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come
from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing
shape, from a spider’s web.” This is an extremely agreeable statement for all artists due to its
truths. Artists must communicate ideas from the world around them into meaningful pieces, and
translate meanings to the audience to gain an emotional response. I strongly agree with this
emotionalist and expressionist theory because I see the influences art and theory have within us.
This is extremely important, especially for the Emotionalism aesthetic theory.
The emotionalism and expressive aesthetic theories match my own theories of art the
best, because of its emphasis on arousing a response from the viewer, and requires the artist to do
what an artist does: to give meaning out of nonsense. I wish to communicate to my viewers that
there are deep questions within themselves that they must answer. Many people, whether they
know it or not, do have internal feelings that they refuse to touch upon. I want to urge them to
dig deep within and desire to answer the unresolved. People are deeper than they think, and they
need to look inside themselves for answers. I want my art to communicate that there are
unanswered questions we must answer for ourselves. And it is often that emotional responses can
give us some explanation for the unanswered questions in life.
It is important to evoke emotion, meaning, and symbolism in your work because it
requires your audience to use their brains to figure out the underlying message. Different
symbols mean different things to different people, and evoking emotions cause people to
question their beliefs and seek to have their questions answered. By nature, art must carry
meaning, because if it had no message, it wouldn’t be considered art. For example, theater would
not be theater without evoking emotions through dramatic play, or music would not be music
without the instrumentalist’ desire to give a message through song. Art would not be art if it did
not evoke emotion in people. Artwork would not be “good” or even considered art without the
importance of Emotionalism because we wouldn’t be able to create without a purpose. A good
work of art is one that carries intentions to evoke human emotion, and express creative ideas and
thoughts into meaningful construction. A fundamental human belief is the belief that we were
created to do something with ourselves. Otherwise how would life have any meaning? Artwork
works in the same way- if artwork didn’t carry the theory of emotionalism, why are we creating
art for the viewership of the world? And without a purpose to create, we are left with nothing.