After the controversial appearance of Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” in 1917, the world began to understand that art is not only to be found in a painting or sculpture, but rather can be made from anything around us. Later the enormous success of Pop art developed this theme. In other words, artists showed us that art is everywhere and we just need to train our eyes to see it and discover the potential in our world.
It is some time since art was exclusively the province of galleries and museums. While these remain main centers for art-lovers, the growth of street art, performance art, land art and many other innovative kinds of art have meant that it really can be something we see as we walk down the street, a part of our ordinary lives.
The world continues to change, and we become more demanding in our desire to bring some form of art to normal life. Furniture is carved or molded in unusual and creative ways, light fixtures can become works of art, while we expect a print if not an original work on many of the free walls we see on a regular basis, from our own homes to our offices to the doctor’s surgery.
Art rules our minds, it surrounds us on all sides. Going to work you can listen to a favorite piece of music through your earpieces, you can be inspired by a billboard or a piece of public art, or even recent graffiti. At lunch you may visit a gallery with a friend, or watch an art house film in the evening. One single day can include exposure to – and, if you are aware of it, appreciation of – so many different kinds of art.
Leonardo da Vinci said that there are three types of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. Contemporary art tries to attract the attention of all these kinds of people, even the last type. Modern art is sometimes bright and flashy, but at the same time it is unexpected, it appears in displays we would never have thought about before.
Art is a way of finding beauty in the world, and adding a sense of joy to our lives. However it can also act as a way of dealing with the problems of existence that have bothered humanity for millennia. In a more abstract sense, it can influence the way you live and make your life itself a recognized thing of value. Somerset Maugham believed that life is an art, that every person creates a work of art just by living.
This is a powerful thing – in letting art become a part of our life and allowing it to form our lives, we can live in a world where everything can be art, or the inspiration for art, and where everyone can in some sense be an artist.