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Art Vs Art

Decent Essays

From the first society that we have been able to penetrate, no society has lived without some form of art. Art can be thought of as a symbol of what it means to be human, displayed in physical form for others to see and interpret. “There are as many ways to define art as there are people in the universe, and each definition is influenced by the unique perspective of that person, as well as by their own personality and character” (Marder). Art has many functions and roles in both past and present civilizations. Around 36,000 years ago, someone living in a time incomprehensibly different from ours, began to draw on the bare walls of caves. Without these engravings and drawings on the cave wall, humans today wouldn’t know the history of these past civilizations. Their artwork and drawings that we keep discovering allow us to gain more knowledge of these civilizations that lived centuries ago. An example of a piece of more recent art that records and commemorates is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This wall honors the human sacrifice during the Vietnam War and it allows us to always remember the Americans who lost their fight during this war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial permits us to look back on one of our most painful national memories. Artists create artwork that helps us remember the present after it slips into the past, that keeps us in mind of our history and that will speak of our times to the future. The artwork’s meaning isn’t the most important thing when looking

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