Art as a Reflector of History

I don't know about you guys but I watch a lot of history channel, and really don't get much history out of it, But I love Pawn Stars. It's kinda a low quality Antiques roadshow and the stuff they bring in can be really, really cool. Some of the most expensive things on the show that come up are firearms, and art. Firearms because they can have great meaning and are cool and collectible, and Art because its an abstract form of expression that people can really connect with. Sometimes Art is ignored in history classes because it seems to be irrelevant, but  art and images have always played a great part in the culture of civilizations, and culture is a huge part of history. Maybe I'm biased because I take art at the school but I think its also a very interesting topic that strays away from the norms of social studies. Take the first art ever made by humans, cave paintings in the upper-paleolithic era, elementary and focused on necessities of life, made almost 30 thousand years ago.They reflect the needs of the prehistoric humans: ones of self preservation and living, not self actualization, because that was their focus in life. Today art differs from that because we express ideas in our art, which puts a higher focus on individual self actualization.  Further down the line we can see how art plays into the expression of religion, notably in the Ancient Indian culture. Once I went to San Francisco to the Asian Art Museum and its amazing to see the stone carvings of deities made with such artisanship. It can be likened to the ancient Egyptian art which, carved in stone, focused more on gods and pharaohs, but in both these types of art from ancient civilizations more abstract ideas aren't usually conveyed but they do give great insights into the culture. The materials they are made from differ as much as the landscape around them do, and they show that the emphasis of life was much on religion, sometimes family life and hierarchy, or power, and everything is as it is shown. Nothing is really challenged or abstractly expressed. They might not be realistic, but that's just the style, not a form of expression. This is similar to the mentality of the European naturalism and neoclassicalism era, trying to depict events with as much accuracy as possible. However as art has progressed, so has its purpose. People began to realize that through images and colors different ideas can be expressed. Take Francisco Goya's painting Third of may, 1808, where an unarmed man in white with his hands in the air is at gunpoint of multiple armed men in black, and was painted to commemorate the Spanish Resistance to Napoleons rule. By painting the figure in white, he becomes a symbol of innocence, while his posture furthers his idea. He is being shot by faceless humans depicted in a militarily cruel stance. With these methods a more abstract Idea is expressed by his painting, contrasting the ancient civilization method. It becomes a commentary rather than a picture, and is an example of how deep art can become. The painting isn't made realistically, almost abstractly, and focuses more on the idea than accurate depiction. By putting this kind of depth into art, we can see a shift in the artist's mentality in style from realism to expression. This has been furthered in the modern day day where people make abstract pieces devoid of realistic shape and form to focus on individual ideas through elements of art. This progression of how art is made shows us how civilization has progressed from a focus on necessity, to a focus on realism, to a focus on expression and self actualization through art, and these qualities can reflect how a civilization has developed.

Francisco Goya's Third of May, 1808

Sources:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/realism.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/art-history-timeline.html