Have you ever wondered what exactly is it that makes a painting great? How come some artworks so admired by art lovers and art critics? What qualities possess certain paintings which make us feel so enthusiastic about them?
Well, a very loose definition of a great artwork is it has to possess a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’, something inexplicable that captivates us, moves us, or pleases us. It needs to be something quite hard to explain., hard to define and hard to explain.
Being an artist, I wanted to research this matter further and analyze this mysterious trait of the items makes a painting great. It was vital that i can understand this, when i thought about being in a position to create great paintings.
After studying art for quite some time I continued conducting my very own research into this, through my work, and eventually reached the following conclusions:
- A great painting should have powerful visual content and incredibly often also an emotional one. Both of them are important, and the mixture of both of these elements is important if you being an artist desire to create an incredible painting. And since we’re coping with visual art, I believe the visual side is more important.
In other words, when the aesthetic side is neglected, the work is not going to be a great masterpiece. For instance, a painting of the cat is going to attract us because we like cats, therefore it will address to the emotions- but we only likely to consider it an excellent painting it if it will be painted inside a skillful and original manner. A painting of ocean waves will attract our attention because we’re so captivated by greatness from the ocean but we are only likely to enjoy it for the way the artist has treated the topic, how he used various colours and textures to present it to us.
We’ll also appreciate a more abstract canvas which does not necessarily have an emotional content, however it indulges our eyes with a variety of interesting textures, lines, shades, contrasts. Thus, one can produce a fantastic artwork without necessarily addressing our emotions but simply our senses. And, I do not believe that the lack of an idea behind such painting will make it a less valid artwork
Because it is called visual art the aesthetic side of the painting is more important then the emotional one. These days, many contemporary artists encouraged by formal contemporary art institutions will exhibit ordinary objects, like old dirty boots, old and rusty working tools, as well as other mundane or even disgusting items and call them ‘artworks’. You are able to sometimes get in an exhibit of contemporary art a pile of stones, or…bricks or just some old papers exhibited being an artwork….Others exhibit gruesome, distorted animal parts, or other shocking objects trying to convey some dark and depressing messages.
Even though this is undeniably a type of communication, and it may make an in-depth impression around the audience, surely that this isn’t real art but instead desperation. Perhaps desperate tries to be remembered being an artist by shocking the crowd, desperately trying to do something original. Other contemporary artists appear to have abandoned art altogether and they just use it as an excuse to unload themselves of personal nightmares along with other negativity… Such attempts to enroll art to share such ideas and messages often end up not producing quality art, because the need for the aesthetics is overlooked. They may produce shock and scandal, and get questionable and temporary fame, nonetheless they might not survive the test of time.
