If you looked at a piece of art from 7000 years ago and a piece of art from today the difference would be undeniable. Art has evolved, tremendously over the years, some pieces of art revolutionised the art word, some not so much. At the beginning there were only cave paintings, in the middle ages more and more artists started popping up and changing the game. Today there are so many different types of art and artists that it’s impossible to know them all.
Let’s take a dive back in time. What is the first known artwork? Well that’s a hard question to answer, the first representational art known to the human race is a cave painting of pigs estimated to have been drawn 45,500 years ago. But rocks have been discovered with carved out circles dating about 70,000 years ago. Speaking of rock carvings, the most popular thing to make back then was sculptures of the human body and realistic cave paintings. Not so many creative designs back then, people would paint/sculpt what they saw.
Moving on to ancient Egypt and Greece, where painting takes a turn. Around 14 BC, the Egyptians started to get crafty. A bust of Egyptian Queen, Nefertiti was found. The artist was Thutmose, a favourite of the King. He was the sculptor of many famous sculptures that have been found, and a lot were found. The Egyptians had started making sculptures of important people, and of their gods. They also made many pots with pictures carved into the design. They started to get creative and invented their own style, stick like and square. Meanwhile (a couple hundred years later) the ancient Greeks were very busy painting.
Speaking of famous paintings worn by time, let’s move on to the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting of all time. In the fourteenth century people were making paintings for religion. Many churches wanted paintings of Jesus in the fourteenth century and the high majority of paintings discovered are paintings of Mary, Jesus or the last supper. In these times people did not see the pleasure in abstract paintings so all the paintings of this time were of people. Leonardo Devinchi (the creator of the Mona Lisa) was no exception. He created over 20 portraits, but less than 19 were discovered.
Next we move on to a time closer to us, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many artists changed things up at this time and opened everyone’s eyes to a whole new level of artistry. Van Gogh painted the world as he saw it, not how it was. Emily Carr captured the mystical landscapes of Canada. Pablo Picasso showed us that a painting doesn’t have to be symmetrical to be stunning. Frida Cahlo showed us emotion and pain in paintings. So many artists send the art world spinning.
Today it’s very hard to come up with something new because of all the great artists that came before us. They all had their own unique style and now it’s hard to be unique. The art world has morphed into something different; there are so many choices today. So many things that could be considered art. Someone taped a banana to the wall, called it art, and sold it! But I’m not saying today it’s impossible to create beautiful art. Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who creates elegant artwork that reaches deep into your heart, only using dots. Another amazing artist is Jeff Koons who creates giant sculptures of everyday objects.
There are so many ways in which art has changed, and stayed the same over the years. Some changes for the better, some for the worst. Everyone has different opinions on art, but I think we can all agree that the world just wouldn’t be the same without the magic of art.
