Art And Culture

The origin of the word "art" can be traced back to the old English "thou art" which means "you are". Again, art as in "fine arts" owes its root to the Latin "ars" or "artis". However, in comparison to the dual meanings in which we may express the word, the second meaning has remained unchanged with the process of time. The word "culture" however originated from the Latin language. It said to have a Latin base "colere" which means to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor. Broadly it can be said to be a human activity carrying several meanings and definitions.

The two distinct words "art and culture" if linked with each other, it exhibits two distinct concepts

Art may be a product of the extensive culture (cultivation) of human sentiments.

Culture of different strata of society at different places at different time has been expressed in art.

Art can be said to be a "result" of extensive culture of human emotions, sentiment and thought of an artist, supplemented with the artist's skill. It is a product of an artist's cultivation of different strata of society at various moments. Thus if one can culture on society at different situation, he can generate a good piece of art .So we may say that "art is a reflection of society" at different time.

Practically time being the dictator in the evolution of society; it also influences a product of art. The classical period was a period of reason, order and rules.
Art has thereby exhibited such meanings at that time.

The Romantic period being a period of reasoning, so the dominant subject of art was emotion, adventure and imagination. Art in its cultural form gained impetus during the renaissance. Again, the 19th century culture was the theory of truth and beauty thus the form of art that came up during this period was based on "truth" and "beauty".

Early 20th century culture brought forth the concept of modernism -this is the time, when the human nature was undergoing turmoil. The bizarre mundane society was undergoing a deviation from humanity at this time. The late 20th century is the postmodern period The puzzled society is now trapped in such a ditch that an exit from this phase is next to impossible. Men are said to have been transformed into robots. Junked up with work pressure they have little or no time to cherish their emotions and sentiments .The work of art that comes up at this stage are to call up an attention to human sentiment and art at large. The overall disjointed sentiment when cultured by an artist; it is reflected in the works of art through abstract expressions, images, ideas and concepts.

Besides, a piece of art may also echo a specific culture. We may find several piece of art vividly exposing the "Byzantine culture". Again a work of art might focus on "Iranian culture", "western culture" or "modern culture" and so on. Moreover the art of working in a particular place at a particular time is the work culture. Likewise we have club culture or organizational culture.

Actually art in its own form has developed itself with its multicultural heritage over time. Thus, it is worth saying that both art and culture are complimentary to each other and an overall support to each other to attain some sort of fulfillment at large.

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