Reflection

How does knowing more about the social, cultural or historical context of a work of art have an impact on our knowledge of the work itself?

One of the most debatable topic in present life is the history of particular paintings.Undoubtedly, we know a lot about the creator of the art object, but is this enough knowledge to make an opinion about the art piece?In my opinion, it isn't. There are quite a lot of additional knowledge that is actually important in understanding the work itself.

To provide an example, I chose one of my best drawings.Lately our school announced a painting competition with the topic "your best summer moment" , so I decide to participate.One of the conditions is to give the background story of the painting.As you can see in the attached picture, I draw the sea and a small bay near the shore.Obviously, it seems like a pretty common place, though it is originally very beautiful. Most of people will sea just the drawn nature, but this is not the real knowledge.Given the fact that I have a lot of memories connected with this seashore, I made a decision to draw it. Due to the history of these place, especially the moments, such as meeting my turkish friends there, having picnic on the rocks, collecting fascinating seashells, relates to the topic of the competition. In addition, I was drawing this picture with my friends, that encouraged me to take part in it.

In my real life, this drawing remembers me about my bright summer with friends and i always use it as a relaxation when i am tired or stressed out.Appealing to the previous paragraph, the main purpose of this object is a part of the competition exsibition.

A lot of students will se this picture, and for most of them it will be just a nature painting, but if the had known the context, such as the history of it's creation (an experience with my friends), social and emotional context (how excited I was that time) or cultural (how I researched special rocks during my hiking trip), they would be able to read and to see more in just a common painting.So here the raised question appears : do we have knowledge about the art pice without knowing it's social, cultural and historical background?

As it can be seen, mentioned context can provide much more information about the piece of art, that we can imagine.Following this point, i think that all three context compiles the most important part of understanding and gaining the knowledge about the picture itself.