Progress in Art

Imagine a really famous artwork. So what did you think of? I bet for a lot of you, it was a painting, perhaps a da Vinci, like "The Mona Lisa,"

Sourceor "The Last Supper."

SourceWhen we think of art, our mind often turns to Renaissance-era painters,

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but art takes many shapes, like sculpture,

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design,

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music,

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dance,

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acting,

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poetry,

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And more....

We even see bits of science in art, think the golden ratio

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And the Fibonacci spiral

Sourcethat can be found in those two da Vinci paintings,

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Source"The Vitruvian Man,"

SourceArchitecture,

Sourceand even in this Rothko painting,

Source"Untitled Yellow and Blue," which looks like a minimalist Minion and recently sold for $46.5 million.

That may seem like a lot, but scientifically, we do find the golden ratio beautiful.

Studies have found the golden ratio selectively activates certain cortical neurons as well as the insula, which mediates emotions. Rothko aside, there are some major evolutionary advantages to art that go back tens of thousands of years.

I will write about Damien Hurst's

Source"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" from 1991. And it's a tiger shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde.

SourceIt's one of the most famous or infamous artworks in recent history.

SourceBut I think it's relevant to this post, because it shocks and distracts. While you might expect to find this in a natural history museum or lab, in an art gallery, it's disruptive and attention-getting. Also, it encourages a confrontation of death. I feel like a lot of "BrainCraft" episodes encourage a confrontation of death, as well. How can you go wrong?

Artists have attempted to process and consider death in many different ways through art. And this one, I believe, does it extremely effectively. Some think of art as a way to transcend death, to stop time. And this piece, I believe, negates that false pretense. We all die. And all art will ultimately cease to exist as well. Unless we get preserved in formaldehyde. And even that's not forever.

So let's talk more evolutionary advantages. Some visual arts can also be used to pass down history, like cave painting,

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SourceWhich depict hunts and communities. And it can also be used to teach younger generations how the ancestors survived.

Art is really effective in this way. You can think about the history of mythological art

Sourceand Biblical art

Sourceas extremely successful ways of passing along stories without using words.

Or in more recent history, you can think about state-sponsored mural-making in Mexico following their revolution.

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SourceArtists, including Diego Rivera, were commissioned to create large-scale public murals that told the story of the revolution in an attempt to cement the ideas of the new government.

SourceThere's an idea that the origin of art was a sign of an elevated level of consciousness. If you think that abstract thought was a defining characteristic that makes us human and separates us from animals, that's also a defining characteristic of art.

We look for evidence of this ability in other species like Neanderthals or other evolutionary branches around modern humans, as well as other mammals to try and define how close they are to us.

So another advantage is rhythm. Humans are one of the only species who demonstrate a sense of rhythm, along with some species of birds. And it can be really useful.

Certain brain areas respond to different beats, which allows us to keep the beat in our head.

SourceAnd we can use this to do things like improve our memory. So you probably remember when you were a kid you learned things like songs to remember the state capitals. And this makes me think about how repetition and variation function in art and how the human eye likes symmetry.

You can think about the work of minimalist artists in the 1960s and '70s who worked directly with the idea of repetition of identical forms.

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And just like birds, we can use rhythm and music to learn or communicate without the need for literacy. In many cultures who lack formal education, people passed on stories and information through music and rhythm and song.

And this makes me think about how abstraction came into art.

SourceIn many cases, abstraction was a strategy to make art more universal and less specific to an individual culture or language.

And art like dance can help us find mates as well. So dancing demonstrates strength, gracefulness,

Sourceand rhythm, which are useful for hunting prey, hiding from predators, or just protecting offspring. And those physical capabilities that make for a good dancer also make for a good mate and provider. And other animals have made this connection as well, like the Peacock Spider.

SourceIt does a dance when it's trying to woo a mate, as do many birds. This dancing indicates interest or physical capabilities that are useful evolutionary.

And when you look into the history of dance or any art, you often hear of the evolution of that art. And I think that's a good way to think about it. If you consider Martha Graham,

Sourcea dancer and choreographer considered to be the mother of modern dance, what was so revolutionary about her approach was that it was a reaction to and a rejection of the more traditional dance that came before.

It seems to me that nothing that we or any other species does is completely random, because when you think about it, that evolutionary pathway that led us to be the apex predator on this planet also resulted in some pretty cool skills.

And many consider art to be an evolution, moving from one style or movement to the next. But I believe art isn't such a straight line, that it happens irregularly. But you know what? So is human evolution. Right.