Article written by Caitlyn Saliba.
History, it’s real, the past of our species. But is it art? How does the awe and wonder of walking through a history museum differ from the awe and wonder of walking through an art gallery? As you walk through an art gallery you see a bunch of works, made by someone else, which you’ve never seen before, or might resemble something in your everyday life or another artwork you have seen before. When you walk through a museum, it’s the same kind of feeling right? There are a bunch of artefacts that might resemble older versions of everyday items, and you might have learnt about some of these things in history classes. So there’s not much difference there right? Or maybe not. I’m not an expert on this subject so bear with me here guys.
Now, I’ve always been interested in history, so my opinion might be a tad bias, but from my perspective, art has always been a part of history. The indigenous peoples had their pointillism artworks and the cavemen had their cave drawings, even churches and cathedrals are in on it. They had their walls, ceilings and windows painted before the time of mass literacy in the population so that anyone could ‘read’ the stories of the bible literally ON the church as well as in early illustrated versions of the bible itself. So it’s clear to see that art is a part of history, but does this work both ways? Can history also be a part of art?
If you look at human history in the sense of evolution then maybe you lean more towards history as being a part of science. I mean obviously right? But there’s no clear cut definition of what art is. For me, art is something that elicits an emotion within me, so that being said, a lot of human history has emotional connotations, such as world wars and the devastation caused by them. That elicits emotion doesn’t it? Despair, fear, helplessness, these are all things that this one historical event can elicit.
Now history can be formed or shared through art, such as photographs, paintings, and the likes, so when you’re researching these historical events, surely you’re going to see a photo or two. So history, in this way, can be art. And seeing these photographs and paintings elicits and emotion from the viewer, just as a novel would elicit emotion from its reader. This is why I believe that sometimes history can be art.
Another example of this is the creationism view of human existence, Adam and Eve, and the way that god created this earth. If he’s creating all these things, and they’re living, surely that’s got to be some kind of art right? The skill of making something from nothing has been previously spoken about in my articles and I’m a stickler for nothing becoming something. So the notion of MAKING everything that we see today, is art. Not only that but the way that the world and other people affect us elicits emotion right? Everyone has had those days where it feels like the world is conspiring against you and it either makes you mad or upset, these emotions prove that the history not only of our species, but our own personal history can be considered art.
More on this personal history. Have you ever taken a photo of a friend? Or had a friend take a photo of you? That my friends is photography, no matter how amateur it might be. And photography is a form of art, we all know that from my other article on how to make money from our art, so that short snippet of your personal history has been captured by a type of art. And when you compile all these little art snippets, you see a history of yourself.
Recently my mother bought this scanner, which allows her to scan photographs, negatives and slides from her past and digitalise them. Cool isn’t it? As we were going through the boxes and boxes and boxes full of all these photos we could almost see the whole history of our family starting with my great grandparents who I’d never been fortunate enough to meet. This history of my family was not only captured in an art form, it was an art form in itself. I felt like I gained a better understanding of my family, as you tend to do with history, but I also got to see these pieces of photograph paper, which were once blank, filled with this history of my family. It was such a spectacular experience for me, to be able to combine both my passion for history, especially my own family history, and my passion for art and stories. Nothing could ever come close to something like that, and if you have those old abandoned boxes of family photos lying around someone in a dark cupboard gathering dust, I urge you to get them out and experience what I mean for yourself.
So back to the original question. Is history art? Well, from what I’ve experienced and my own personal experiences, definitely. But I really do urge you next time you go to a museum or if you do have those old photos laying around, try looking at them through both the lens of history and the lens of art, I’m sure you’ll be surprised by what you find.
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