Since the very beginning of history, art has been around—but why?
Every human creation that exists has a niche it was meant to fit in or a problem it was meant to resolve, and those from long ago are no different. Nowadays, art is seen as an almost luxury, solely meant to be enjoyed visually. However, the reason behind the original creation of art is very different.
It is speculated that the first primary use of art was for religious purposes. Examples of this can be found from the prehistoric cave paintings in France to the Sistine Chapel. Even now, we can see that art plays a large part in religious ceremonies or places of worship.
On the other hand, communication may have played a larger part than religion in the creation and subsequent evolution of art. Communication has a wide span of meanings: documentation of an event, social commentary, storytelling, etc.
Since humans (homo sapiens) first appeared in Africa, it is nearly certain that this is where our art originated as well—humans only began migrating to other continents around one hundred thousand years ago.
Different types of art have also changed over the years, mainly representative of the materials available to the artists at a given time. It’s widely recognized that one of the first mediums of art was cave drawings, made around seventeen thousand years ago. These cave creations can be found in France, Europe, Indonesia, and more.
And then, cave walls turned into canvas and .pngs.
Unfortunately, most of the information studied in further education on art covers the sixteenth-century to today. Yet, this has a very straightforward reason—we don’t know a lot about art in the earlier periods of history; almost nothing that scientists and archeologists have discovered are in “certain” terms.
Still, it’s necessary to make an attempt to understand the true origins and intent behind art in order to appreciate the end product. It’s been a long journey to get where we are now, and art is never finished evolving.
SOURCES
http://char.txa.cornell.edu/ART/introart.htm
https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/art-began.php