To fully understand the subject and content of the art, one should look into the complex background of the piece – who is the artists, in what time and place was the art produced, what was the inspiration, what is the movement it belongs to, etc. Therefore, understanding of the art piece is problematic in the sense that it is complex and can’t be reduced to only the one artwork itself. One who accesses the art needs to always have the full information about its circumstances of making.
Explanation:
The problem of understanding art and its purpose lies in the fact that art is often complex and to understand it we must have a piece of background information about the artist, the time he belonged in, and the theme of the piece.
We need to read every art piece in the context of its own time and movement. Understanding the theme of the impressionist piece is not the same as understanding the one on the cubist work. For example, we have to know that to look into impressionistic painting we have to move away, observe the movements of light and brush, as this was the main focus of the artists of the time. Additionally, impressionism has often portrayed everyday scenes, nature, and the simple life of people. Cubist work, however, is better-observed piece by piece – it is composed of various perspectives of the same subjects, but reduced to geometrical shapes and constructs. Cubism was also more dedicated to portraying modern life and was more likely to give commentary on it (e.g. Guernica by Picasso).
Art is also rather dependents on its technique – we do not analyze oil paintings the same way we do drawings. All techniques have their ideas and benefits, they all try to convey different atmosphere and idea.
The artist himself or herself plays a major role in the piece itself, and often understanding of the subject includes looking into the background of the artist’s life. We should see where they got their information, who they were emotionally, and how they conveyed their life into the art.
