The Significance of Visual Art

Human beings have been creating visual art for tens of thousands of years. For the intelligence of our race to continually revisit this practice of illustration, there must be significance beyond it just being pleasing to the eye. Superficial trends of behavior, which aren’t actually useful to our society, wax & wane with the times. But themes which repeat themselves across great stretches of history indicate not a luxurious & whimsical want, but a primal need that must be met. A desire to be fulfilled or else unfavorable consequences will occur. When I reflect on the psychological guidelines of our wellbeing, I find myself remembering the famous & accurate Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. A roadmap of stepping stones towards our ultimate destination. If you reference this map, which is in itself a piece of visual art (I will touch on this later), alongside human action throughout history, you will see that although we are an intelligent race of beings, we are predictable in nature. Every one of us, even if it appears different in style upon the surface, follows the same structure of development from wanting safety to transcendence & everything in between. This article is an effort to explain the impact of visual art & our tendency to rely upon it, at each level of this hierarchy of which no person is exempt. Before this dive, you must know there are various lenses to view the world. One can perceive life as a physicist, a biologist, a philosopher, etc. Of the universe’s influence, I have always seen this experience as an incredible mosaic. So I refer to everything as a work of art. Hence my interest & interpretation of the subject at hand. Now, let’s begin.