The Importance of Materials in Art (original) (raw)

Susanne Langer, a philosopher of art, wrote that "art is craftsmanship, but to a special end: the creation of expressive forms visually…perceived forms that set forth the nature of human feeling" to make the point that artistic creation is not only vision but also skill. One of the most fundamental and practical aspects of art is the materials used by the artist to express themselves. The materials that the artists use when they create a work of art influences both the form and content of the piece. Indeed, the materials do not only impact a single work of art: common groups of materials can also inspire a movement. One of these movements began in the 1960s and early 1970s when a group of Italian artists formed the movement known as "Arte Povera" or "poor art," which referred to the artists' use of 'everyday', common materials in their work. Artists working within the movement shunned oil paint, marble, and bronze and instead used materials like twigs, soil, rags, and other 'throwaway' materials (Arte Povera). When discussing Arte Povera, artists were not concerned about a lack of money to buy materials but instead about the idea of marking art without feeling limited by traditional materials and practices. Germano Celant, who coined the term, considered it to be a response to the movement of pop art and minimalism while also bringing back and radicalizing the insights of the previous generation's Italian abstract artists (with Manzoni in particular) (Mansoor, 2016). The way artists have used materials has continually changed over thousands of years and has impacted not only the art form but art technique. Indeed, many movements have been formed and reformed based on the use (including the development and availability of) new and interesting materials. The following essay describes the importance of materials in the creation of art, the broad evolution of artistic materials from the earliest examples of art until the present, and ultimately shows how even a change in the viscosity of paint can transform a work of art and inspire a whole new generation of artists.