About the Big Picture
When you think of art today – what comes to mind? Public galleries, huge prices at auction, digital art? The list of answers would be interesting. Pose that question a few hundred years back and that list would be different. Art has probably always been part of human society, but throughout time it changes.
The idea for this site grew from the fact that I’m not sure I like how art fits into our society today. As I look at the serious faces on the covers of many art magazines and read the events programme of the galleries I feel ill at ease. There’s something for everyone being promised but I know many people don’t think twice about art – and why should they? Is what we are being offered just too limited a viewpoint? I want this site to tear the cover off the world of art and start discussing it all, and from many angles, because I’m bored with what’s out there.
Anthropologists, philosophers and other scholars suggest there is something biological in our need for art; it is like eating or sleeping. They stress its universality. If art is part of our fundamental human makeup, as many believe, then perhaps there is something to be gained in all our lives by looking a bit deeper at this subject.
I want to explore ideas, big and small, and welcome everyone to the party. Art in many different forms, and by well-known and lesser-known artists will feature. But most importantly I want to encourage you to grab your share of creativity and art appreciation and see if it can enhance your life in any way – and enjoy the experience.
I’m taking my inspiration for the content from whatever sparks my curiosity. I hope it may encourage you to explore what art means to you.
My academic interest in art, conservation and creativity in digital media developed during my tertiary education at The University of Aberdeen in Scotland, The Courtauld Institute of Art in London & Glasgow Caledonian University.
Art is the means by which life reflects on, transforms and indeed creates its values; human life without it would not properly be human at all.
Antony Gormley