Generally
speaking, there are five main functions of the visual arts: ceremonial, artistic expression,
narrative, functional, and persuasive. To these can be added beauty, in effect, the desire of
the artist to simply create something beautiful with little or no thought to any significance
beyond that objective.
The ceremonial purpose of the visual arts is to
celebrate or acknowledge an event or era, or to contribute to a ritualistic activity, such as a
dance celebrating one of the season or a peoples flight from captivity or hunger. One of the
more common forms of ceremonial art is quilting, in which the patterns employed have some
symbolic importance, or the use of ceremonial garb by Native Americans participating in a Pow
Wow.
Artistic expression refers to the desire or need on the part of the
artist to express his or her emotions or feelings regarding a particular subject, including his-
or herself. Many abstract artists, for example, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko (although the
latter rejected that categorization) are assumed to be expressing emotions or beliefs through
their art, which lends itself to multiple interpretations and references to the known state of
the artists being during the period in which the individual work of art was created. Pablo
Picassos art was known to be heavily influenced by his emotional state during specific periods
of his life.
The narrative purpose is to tell a story or relate the history
of ones people. Again, quilting is a classic form of the use of visual arts to communicate a
story. The African American community, in particular, uses patterns and colors in quilting to
convey the history of slavery and emancipation. Film, another form of visual art, is frequently
used to tell a story, such as with Steven Spielbergs film about the Holocaust, Schindlers
List, in which he used black and white photography to provide a documentary and more somber
feel to the film, while incorporating rare color footage to illuminate a detail and lend
significance to the item or individual in question. David Lean used footage designed to
simulate Russian winters in his film Dr. Zhivago that highlighted the enormous expanse of
Russian plains covered in deep snow.
Functional visual arts refer to
structures or tools that are actually used in day-to-day activities yet are designed to be
aesthetically pleasing in addition to being functional. Architecture is the most prominent of
the visual arts to incorporate functionality in designs. Major architects like Frank Lloyd
Wright, I.M. Pei and Frank Gehry are well-known historical figures for their success in
combining art and function. The buildings for which architects are commissioned to design
obviously have to serve a function, whether it is as a museum, hospital, house, or theater, yet
are expected to be unique and challenging. Functional art can also be quite small, such as the
coffee maker or fruit peeler designed to look futuristic while also performing their intended
functions.
Persuasive art is intended to convey a message. Advertising for
television, billboards, magazine, and other visual media is a form of persuasive art, in that
images are selected and manipulated in order to convey a message or subliminally influence a
consumers decision. A common form of persuasive visual art is propaganda posters and cartoons
intended to denigrate a particular category of people, such as a racial or religious minority,
or to foster emotional reactions among viewers for or against a particular political cause.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used propaganda to convince its own people as well as
others of the righteousness of its cause and the moral and political depravity of U.S.
policies. Nazi Germany, under the authoritarian hand of Joseph Goebbels, used propaganda
posters and newspaper editorial cartoons to demonize Jews and facilitate the inculcation of a
culture of genocide. Tobacco companies use this form of visual art to associate cigarette
smoking with masculine virility and feminine mystique and power.
A final
purpose of the visual arts can be considered the conveyance of beauty. While each of the major
practitioners of expressionism had his own back story, much of the art produced by the French
Impressionists like Claude Monet and Pierre-August Renoir simply represent beauty for its own
sake. While some expressionist painting, like that of Georges Suerat and Vincent Van Gogh, is
more closely tied to the emotional states of the artists, much was intended to beautify the
surroundings.
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