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Can you explain this? Art is a record of humanity..?


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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Like a history book tells actual events that occurred, art, like a snap shot, captures what is considered worth expressing in a given time. It often shows us what people wore, what activities they were involved in, and what the artist's dreams were. An artwork, although created in the past, it continues to exist in the present. Artists and architects can reinforce or challenge values and practices through the objects they create. As an Art Historian you have to reconstruct how people from another time thought. Often art work will quite literally be a record of humanity, for instance, Uccello painted a real battle "The Battle of San Romano" or it can represent a situation in humanity. An example would be (and I'm sorry I don't know the name of the artist) an etching done by and Argentinian artist, it's a glass of water on a table, no figures, just a glass of water. The significance is that people were held for hours upon hours, being interrogated and they were denied water, however as a tactic to get them to talk they would set a glass of water on the table in the room. It was a form of torture. The simple image records a very particular event that happened to many people during a certain time in history.