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Memories trapped in art

Disclaimer: This article is heavily inspired by the works of “Kurzgesagt” and “The Anthropocene reviewed” in their collaborative video The Past We Can Never Return To – The Anthropocene Reviewed

In this article, I will be taking a speculative approach, providing my own interpretation and opinions on the subject matters discussed. I will also not be defining what “art” means as I believe it be a subject to the opinions of each individual.

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Cave Paintings

As the name suggests, cave paintings are ancient drawings made by our ancestors. Oftentimes, either a red (Hematite) or Black (charcoal) pigments were used for the drawings, often depicting animals such as bears, deer as well as human hand prints. The most common question associated with the cave paintings is why? why to so such lengths to create these elaborate paintings?

I think it would be a reasonable assumption to make that life back then was anything easy. Unlike modern day lifestyles, our ancestors almost certainly had very little or no knowledge of agriculture and growing food, meaning they most likely had to scavenge and hunt if they wanted to eat. So there wouldn't be any caloric surpluses back then as we do today, every healthy and able bodied person would have to contribute their own weight or else there simply wouldn't be enough food. So then Why go through so much effort to create these paintings and stencils when they didn’t have much spare hands to begin with? Why put in so much effort and energy to collect pigments to paint?

It's almost as if Art was not optional to them, as if this was something that they had to do, that art is part of what it means to be human.

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​Lascaux cave painting Dordogne, France

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Magura Cave paintings Bulgaria

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Chauvet Cave paintings Ardèche valley (southern France)

Hand stencils

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One of my earliest memories of art was my hand stencil that I did in Kindergarten. Placing my hand on a blank drawing block, I meticulously the outline of my hands with fingers splayed. After removing my hand, I was amazed to see the shape of my hand traced on the paper. To me it was a simply and engaging art activity, but it probably meant something much different to our ancestors.

The earliest known cave painting discovered were of negative hand stencils found in Maltravieso cave, Cáceres, Spain dating back 64,000 years ago. Numerous other cave paintings were also found across the world such as the Lascaux cave painting in France, all containing negative hand stencils and dating back to different time periods,thousands of years apart. How is it that these ancient human tribes, separated by geographical location and time period, with no ability to communicate with one another all unanimously decided to create these hand stencils.

Many people hypothesize that these hand stencils are used to signify a right of passage. They are there as proof that the person has come of age and is accepted as a member of the tribe or denoting a certain status depending on the colour used for the hand stencil.

 

But to me they mean something a little different. To me they mean (and I quote from The Anthropocene Reviewed) “I was here, I existed”. Thinking about this always fills me with a mellow sense of melancholy, pondering about the lives others led and the memories that they left behind, encapsulated with red, black and green in their hand stencils. Occasionally, you may also find hand stencils with missing fingers, lost due to frostbite, animals or disease. So to me these handprints are also a testament to the hardship they our ancestors faced back then, simply surviving in that period was a momentous feat worth immortalizing in a hand print for future generations to behold.

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The evolution of art

Throughout ages and different cultures, the term “art” has taken many different forms, shapes and sizes, from the ancient cave paintigs to the egyptian heiroglyphs and Picasso’s painting.  However, what is intriguing to me still is that all these various civilizations still saw the necessity and importance of art.

Egypt

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In ancient egypt for example, on the walls of pyramids and grandiose tombs were intricate etched drawings (hieroglyphs) which depict the story of the person who had pasted. In fact, these tombs and hieroglyphs were deemed so essential that great sphinxes and statues were constructed surrounding the tombs as a way to guard the tombs against intruders, signifying their importance.

Rome (classical art)

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During the period of the Roman Empire, countless sculptures, buildings and paintings were done to commemorate or homage to people of importance. The greater the person, the more statues and paintings were made in their memory.

This was also the period where Art in its broadest sense took the form which are accustomed to today, now known as “classical art”.

China

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Even in Ancient China, art was still present,taking the form of paintings but also poetry and calligraphy to tell the stories of emperors and lords of each dynasty. However during this time, life expectancy was also short. Assassinations, wars and plagues all meant that emperors at the time did not rule for long. Hence this limited period of reign meant that each emperor at the time sought ways to be remembered. While Some, set out to leave their memory in conquest,  others like Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, chose to leave it in stone, contracting things like the terracotta warriors to secure his journey to the afterlife and solidify his memory in the present life.

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 So what do all these cultures have in common?, Well I believe they all saw art as a method of remembrance. To commit an event or a person to a painting or sculpture or to have vast, elaborate structures built in their name is to solidify their memory in history, to permanently ink their existence such that their memory lives on in others. It is my belief that people are unconsciously obsessed with the concept of oblivion and being forgotten. I think that's why so many of us work so hard to achieve something and why we have awards like the “nobel prize” and “Oscars”. It's a way in which we can be remembered, such that our name still lives on somewhere out there, such that who we are as a person isn’t forgotten.

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In ancient periods, there is a latin phrase called Damnatio Memoriae, which can be directly translated to condemnation of memory which they believed to be the worst punishment that can be bestowed upon someone. The ancient people at the time were remarkably petty, so rather than simply killing the person, they sought to damn the very memory of that person. This involved scratching their names off any scripture or writings and defacing any statues or paintings made of them such that the very memory of that person is wiped from the annals of history, as if they never existed. That I believe is the worst thing which could happen to anyone.

The High Renaissance period (1490 to 1527)

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When we think of art, most of us will autodirect to High renaissance paintings, taking them as a gold standard of what an artistic masterpiece is. Paintings such as “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci or “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo are some of the most well known artworks from the High renaissance, and those are the ones which we remember even till this day. Personally, most of the famous paintings which I know of come from this period. Now perhaps this is because I’m simply uncultured, but I would also like to think that it's because the High renaissance paintings are simply more famous and well known then those of the early renaissance or middle ages. Why is this so though? Why is it that artworks from this particular period of human history are so well known to this day with names like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo becoming household names. Well to me I think it has more to do with what the paintings represent, as they are able to capture the zeitgeist of the era. Though they are absolutely stunning to look at, what lingers with me even after days of seeing them are the thoughts they generated and the emotions they invoked. And that's what I think distinguishes a good art piece from a great art piece, both may be visually stunning but if it does not resonate with the viewer then it won't be as memorable or captivating.

Pre-modern period

Some of my most favourite paintings are actually from this period. Contradicting myself slightly from the previous paragraph, but I do believe that the visual impact of art of this era outshines their meaning, at least in my opinion. My favourite of which is “starry night” by Vincent Van gogh. His backstory aside, his command of colour and art style is something which I dare say is unique to him, which propels his artworks into a dimension of their own at least when the visual senses are concerned. To me, his works were a personification of his mental and emotional state, serving as a lasting memory of the passion and pain he felt.

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Then there is also Pablo Pisccaso with his unique, cubism art style which starts to fall more into the realm of modern art. His works, at least to me, strike a different form of visual appeal through the amalgamation of contrasting shapes, colours and shadings which typically do not blend well together.

When I was younger, I initially thought his works were slightly scary and creepy, falling into the uncanny valley because of the unclear facial features. However as I grew up, I started appreciating his works more for their uniqueness and boldness. Their value comes from their uniqueness and they represent what Picasso stood for and accomplished for the art world.

Conclusion

So with all that's said and done, art is like a Time machine for human history. The art works from each time period and culture encapsulates the spirit of the era and is a testament to the hardships and memories of the people from our past. It's an outlet in which we as people are able to express ourselves, our desires, hopes, pain and hardships and a way in which our memory may live and spirit may live on. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. Well then, how many words can a masterpiece paint?

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