Culture and Art

Culture and Art have lots of definitions. From my point of view, culture and art express human being. Human as the only creature in this world creates background about him, which represents his spirit and thinking. Difference between culture and art is that culture is a manifestation of several people or nation and achievement describing their common thinking and work. Art can be an expression of a single person. What do we mean by ‘art’? The sense of the word changes from generation to generation. As a general definition, we will consider art to be the creation of something that is ‘aesthetically pleasing’. However not everybody is talented for creating art. Those lucky ones who are gifted enough can make a living as painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, conductors and actors. The majority of people are those who only consume works of art. Moreover, there is also the third category of those who criticise both creators and consumers of art. There are also two categories of art: pop art and classical art. Pop art is for mass consumption. It produces money and it is further for laymen. On the other side, classical art is valuable mostly for special people who understand it and like it. Andy Warhol may be considered the king of pop art; he was a painter, a writer, a photographer, a scenarist, a manager etc. He said that the art is everything, for which we must pay. Many people considered him to a fool.

Music exists from our youth. The first people imitated music from nature. When people began to talk, it was the first step to singing. They sang at work, when they were sad, happy or at various rituals. Music became the art because it provides people a satisfaction and an enjoyment. Gradually musical instruments began to start up, what made musicians’ work easier. Therefore, we know the musical art wherein human voice isn’t necessary, for example jazz. Nowadays music arts are known, wherein artist use more sounds than singing. It is called ‘techno’ and ‘house’. Music is mixed by computer or special equipments. I am fond of this music and in my opinion, it is the music of new generation. However, we know the music arts, in which human voice is necessary, for example opera. Further, we know rock, country, blues, folk, reggae and classical music. Classical music is one of European treasures. Names like Beethoven, Mozart, Bach or Chopin sounds familiar to every European. Popular music is consumed by masses. The most popular was the British quartet the Beatles. They produced many huge hits and their songs changed the direction of music forever. There are many festivals, music awards or concerts, organized all, it is an opportunity for the fans of specific music arts to meet. In my opinion, music art is an art consumed by the most people all over the world.
Theatre exists many years and it became the first success of actors. Especially in the past acting was a part of culture in France or in England. Performances gave people a release from the problems of their everyday life. However, theatres changed. Nowadays people prefer rather cinemas than theatre. In the past, the roles of women were played by men, there were no actresses at all and actors did not spend much time rehearsing. William Shakespeare may be considered the greatest dramatist the world has ever had. He lived and worked in Renaissance England, which offered very fertile soil for the free way of thinking. He is famed mainly by his tragedies as Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Cinemas and films have become a great business all over the world. Films, actors and actresses earn incredible money, maybe this art is all about money. Films displace books and perhaps people know Hollywood better than Versailles, for example. In my opinion, very often Hollywood doesn’t make art but only stock films. And for me, sitting in front of television is a waste of time lately. Nevertheless, I like good foreign films, which are not dubbed, but which are provided in the original language and with subtitles, because it is a good opportunity for me to test my knowledge of English. Moreover, I think that nowadays people are lazier to leave their homes for culture. They prefer watching TV or video instead of going to the cinema or the theatre.

We know books for a very long time. At the beginning, books were used mainly for variety of historical records. Later we began to use them for entertainment, relaxation and learning. In our life, there appear many various kinds of literature. When we read for pleasure, we usually choose books of fiction, such as novels, short stories and tales or poetry. But we can read books written by the specific author, who we like, books with interesting topics, or books recommended by our friends. We can buy books, or we can borrow them from libraries. As we know, literature has been separated up into several literary movements. We deal fine art according to these movements very often. My favourite movement is impressionism, which is characterized by interception of momentary impress. It is less known in a literature than in a fine art, painters like Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin or Claude Monet belong in that cathegory. In my point of view, young people are not interested in reading books in comparison with the consumption of TV culture. They rather prefer modern technologies, such as internet, television and mobile phones, which are more interesting for the young generation. I don’t like reading books too, with the exception of science and science fiction books. Mainly ancient Greek and Roman cultures brought revolutions of fine art. In our everyday life, we also meet works of the fine art, such as architecture, sculptures or painting. When we see buildings such as castles, palaces, we must admire the art of architecture of the old builder-masters, masons and their sense of beauty. In museums and art galleries, which show sculptures and paintings, we admire with pleasure the statues and sculptures, or oil paintings, watercolour paintings, masterpieces etc.
I think that the art has a positive and a negative impact on human development, depending on the person’s age. For example, young people choose their idols mainly from among popular artists. However, in my opinion, the art is an expression of some change and this change has an impact on the art, more than vice versa.