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It’s become increasingly fashionable to sneer at art. Philistines on the right dismiss it as not being a proper job, while their counterparts on the left say how it fails to liberate the masses, and virtually all of us roll our eyes when we’re faced with art which wraps itself in impenetrable terminology – blah blah juxtaposition blah deconstructing blah prevailing orthodoxy blah blah blah – and still leaves you wanting to poke your own eyes out with a fork. But the truth is that art does matter to people. Or rather, art which speaks to us, helps us make sense of our lives, and allows us to feel part of something bigger than our individual selves, matters to us. If you ever doubt that, you simply need to take the most cursory of glances at the outpouring of grief this month to the deaths of two very different musicians.
The reaction to their deaths shows the importance of art in our lives.
Even if Motörhead meant nothing to you, you’ll know someone for whom their music was the soundtrack to their life, and for whom Lemmy was a hero. Even if you haven’t a single Bowie track in your music collection, you’ll like as not have friends for whom his dress sense, his songwriting, and his sexual ambiguity showed them there was a world which existed outside the narrow confines of the norm. In their own ways, each of them blazed a trail, and you’d need to have a heart of stone not to be moved when you read how much they meant to so many people. The music they created changed people’s lives, and whether you wanted a place for your energy and anger, your sense of difference, your joy of dressing-up, or just some bloody good tunes to get drunk and dance to, you got it. This was art being important, and art being unpretentious. It was art being part of everyday life. It was art mattering.
This isn’t some fuzzy it’s-all-coming-up-roses world view, either. It’s entirely possible to believe in the necessity of art and still be cynical about the attempts of politicians to garner credibility by making sure they clamber on board the bandwagon of grief. And to recognise that for the part of the world’s population which worries about getting enough to eat, or making it through the day without being killed, a discussion about the role of art in our lives is hardly a priority. But art, and human creativity, gives us the tools to help map a route through our existence, and without it our world would be a colder, darker place.
Make time in your life – today, tomorrow, whenever you can – to find the songs which put a smile on your face or a lump in your throat, the books which transport you away from everyday drudgery, the paintings and photos which open up new vistas, and the sculptures which fill you with wonder. And treasure them.
Treasure them always.
