Chapter V Art and Life

Art is internalized in our species identity-our humanity. Each of us should pay full attention to the quality of life and think about the meaning of life, instead of being helplessly involved in simplified and practical consumerism and a society that only pays attention to efficiency and "entertains to death".

? -American contemporary art theorist, Ellen Dussane Yaka's Aesthetic Man.

The concept of art is the product of history and has different meanings in different times.

In ancient China, "art" refers to planting, and art refers to skill. Official school requires students to master six basic talents, which are called "six arts", including: etiquette (etiquette), music (music), archery (archery), command (driving), writing (writing) and mathematics (technology); In ancient Greece, "art" refers to "craft" and "skill", including painting, weaving, embroidery, architecture, making utensils and so on. The art of "free man" in ancient Rome, also called "free art", includes: poetry, music, dance, history, astronomy, geometry; The seven main subjects in early medieval schools in Western Europe were called "Seven Arts", including grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.

This usage of art shows that as a category, practical art and non-practical art have not been specifically distinguished. At that time, art was a comprehensive concept including many fields. 1746, French aesthetician Abbe barto first put forward the concept of "the art of beauty". The definition of "beauty" clearly shows the difference between it and "non-beauty" (that is, practical) art. Barto believes that there are six beautiful arts: painting, music, poetry, dance, sculpture and architecture. After that, art gradually broke away from traditional skills and gained its own independence, and its connotation and extension were deepened and expanded. In modern times, art can be roughly divided into four categories: language art (literature, broadcasting, etc. ), plastic arts or fine arts (painting, calligraphy, photography, sculpture, architecture, etc. ), performing arts (music, dance, cross talk, etc. ) and comprehensive arts (movies, TV, opera, musicals, etc. ).

People's understanding of art is also constantly evolving. In ancient Greece, philosophers such as Heraclitus, democritus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle put forward a representative theory (representation theory), that is, art (painting, music, literature, etc.). ) is an imitation of the real world. Renaissance,17th century classicism and19th century realism all advocate this representative theory. With the rise of romanticism after18th century, expressionism holds that art is the expression of emotion, soul or self. /kloc-in the 0/9th century, the theory of art form appeared. For example, clive bell (188 1~ 1964), a British formalist aesthete, put forward the theory of "meaningful form", which holds that "meaningful form" (lines, colors, etc. ) form a certain form or relationship between forms in a special way. The conventional theory that emerged in the 20th century fundamentally denies the distinction between art and non-art, and advocates that everything can be art as long as it can be recognized by everyone, especially the art world.

Ye Lang (1938 ~), a professor of philosophy at Peking University, wrote in his book Principles of Aesthetics: "The noumenon of art is aesthetic image. The reason why a work of art is a work of art is because it presents an image world in front of the audience, thus making the audience feel beautiful. "

It is this "image world" that enables human beings to communicate and blend with nature, * * * live * * and live in harmony; It is this "image world" that constructs the spiritual home of mankind and protects the happiness of mankind; It is this "aesthetic feeling" that enhances human's knowledge, understanding and love for nature and life. It is this "aesthetic feeling" that improves the situation of human daily life-from trivial to meaningful, from boring to vivid, from narrow to open-minded, from hazy to beautiful, from dry to vigorous, from emptiness to richness, from vulgarity to Excellence. So art is a part of human life. In a sense, art has made mankind!

Ellen Disanayaka wrote in her book The Aesthetic Man: "In the whole human history, art has been produced as a means of strengthening and a special behavior of shaping and beautifying the things we care about. Art is an activity that makes a person care about something special, which is basic for everyone. Art is internalized in our species identity, that is, our humanity. It is a normal and necessary behavior of human beings. Just like other ordinary and universal human occupations and things that make people focus, such as speaking, working, exercising, playing games, socializing, learning, loving and caring, it should be recognized, encouraged and developed in everyone. "

However, in today's materialized society, "the pursuit of material, technology and utility is more and more dominant, people's material life and spiritual life are out of balance, people's inner life is out of balance, people's life is out of balance with nature, people's life has lost their poetry, and people have lost their homes" (Ye Lang's aesthetic principle), and art has become a floating cloud in the sky, farther and farther away from our lives, and art is inevitably "from Beijing to new york. In Songzhuang (located in Tongzhou District, Beijing), the holy land where the world's largest artists live, some artists are becoming beggars. According to the foreign professional income survey report, 90% of artists have no stable income, and 75% of them have no income for life. The low income of artists has become an international problem. "

First of all, art expresses emotion.

Psychology thinks: "Emotion is people's attitude and experience about whether objective things meet their own needs." William Reddy, a pioneer in the study of British emotional history and a cultural anthropologist, defined emotion as "a series of loosely connected ideological materials, which are often activated at the same time, because there are too many of them to be transformed into actions or words in a short time." Common emotions are like, disgust, anger, sadness, admiration, hatred, happiness, beauty and so on. These feelings are the source of strength for our life, the sunshine and dew of human nature, and one of the most fundamental differences between man and machine.

The starting point and the end point of art are human emotions. So the French sculptor Rodin (1840~ 19 17) said that "art is emotion"; Susan Langer (1895 ~ 1982), one of the representatives of symbolism aesthetics, said that "art is the creation of symbolic forms of human emotions"; China contemporary aesthetician Zhu Guangqian (1897~ 1986) said: "There is no emotion, music is just the vibration of the air, pictures are just colored paper, and literature is just string words."

Secondly, art creates freedom.

Man's existence is limited, restricted and even painful. However, through imagination and creation, art can help people transcend the limited, reach the infinite, and fortunately enter the existence of freedom. Schopenhauer also said: "In aesthetics, people are non-utilitarian, and can temporarily get rid of the will or desire of life, thus getting rid of the deep sea of pain."

Xu (1903~ 1982), a master of China's Neo-Confucianism (China's artistic spirit), thinks that the Tao pursued by Zhuangzi, that is, the unity of man and nature (the unity of mind and matter), is actually the highest artistic spirit.

Third, art gives meaning to life.

Nietzsche (The Birth of Tragedy) thinks that the world is a blind, futile and illusory process of the eternal generation and change of the universe and the continuous creation and destruction of individual lives, so the world and life are flawed, incomplete and meaningless. Art can make human beings look directly at the pain and tragedy of life, and then appreciate the magnificence and happiness of life tragedy with aesthetic eyes, look at the creative activities of the universe with aesthetic consciousness, understand the happiness of the eternal creation of the universe, and imagine that life is a part of the creation of the universe, thus making aesthetic defense and affirmation of the world and life. In a word, art deifies the world and life with beauty, and its value to life is greater than truth. Therefore, Nietzsche said: "Art is the highest mission of life and the initial metaphysical activity of life. We can affirm the world and life by giving life a meaning through art. "

In addition, the documentary "The Power of Art: Van Gogh" said: "Art has done what the church can't do, and it has brought salvation and comfort. Art has successfully opened everyone's eyes, felt the magical power of life, and let them see the vision that they can't see because of their daily work. " Lewis mumford (1895~ 1990), an American historian, sociologist, technical philosopher and literary critic, mentioned in his book The Story of Utopia: "The artist's vivid imagination of beautiful things provides people with models, images and ideals to creatively cope with the surrounding environment, bringing people together and providing them with a vision to reshape their lives and residences. American pianist and painter Mark Gatlane wrote in his book Understanding Art: "In a materialized society, the artist's duty is to remind people of the value of humanity and spirit."

In short, art is everyone's basic, normal and necessary behavior, and it is the most attractive part of human spiritual life; Art expresses our feelings more directly and presents a more real life; Art builds a bridge between finiteness and infinity and gives us spiritual freedom. Art endows life with meaning, thus affirming the world and life; Art allows human beings to return to their spiritual home and find the freedom and happiness of the integration of man and everything (harmony between man and nature); Art makes our personality more complete, human nature richer and life happier; Life without art must be boring, vulgar and desolate.