Why We Need Pictures

With lots of time to think these days, I'm wondering why it is that humans seem to need pictures on the wall. We can go back to the cave paintings and play it forward to the pictures on our walls today to realize that this is a very basic and profound human need. So where does it come from, and why?

Though we do have some wall art, when we designed our house we planned it so that windows & views would be the major Art. Thinking about past houses, most paintings, mirrors, etc. were on large blank walls. I wonder how much of it is art filling a need to "see out". Think of the times you may have gotten "the worst seat" on a plane - lacking a window. A possibility. Many cave paintings purportedly were Magic - though they could equally have been the efforts of shut in children. ;)

Great question, @arthur_gottschalk!

 

Basically, I have no idea but if I had to summarize it, I suspect that:

• Humans (like all animals) are biologically programmed to react very quickly to visual images (threat? fight? run?); so - to me - it's not surprising that humans - via evolving artforms - express their visual images.
  
• A basic need (as in all art forms) is to to 'visualize' as a means of honoring, recording and communicating what a society's values, beliefs and experiences are.
  
• I suspect that the 'human need' for pictures has evolved and changed over the ages. To me, the earliest cave paintings suggest a need to record and/or honor a 'spiritual' or 'existential' relationship with the animals that people hunted. Much later, images became (even as abstracts) expressions of religious devotion. Still later, they became more informative (cityscapes) and eventually more decorative (pleasing to the eye): landscapes, seascapes, etc.
  
• The transitions between 'early classical' to 'modern' art are more widely known.
  

 

I suspect that early human language was less capable of expressing a society's 'felt' common values, beliefs and experiences than was a picture. This doesn't hold true for later ages. Still, the stage was set. The old adage that 'pictures speak louder than words' may have been literally true in early ages but - in terms of immediate communication - still holds true today

 

I also note that - despite the visual power of static images - short video's are an increasingly accessible way of getting a "message across", I sometimes wonder how future-proof 'photography' will be other than a series of video stills.

 

Mike

Some mural art is more 'functional' than outward looking though.

Stained glass windows and mural paintings can be educational for the illiterate, especially.

 

 

 

However, the 'illusionary' window kind of painting is common from Ancient times as well, as at Pompeii...

 

One of my favorite paintings on the subject of painting by a famous photographer and painter

I'm wondering why it is that humans seem to need pictures on the wall.

I think it runs the gamut from an evolutionary human trait to my own need to cover up old nail holes.

 

Much of the art hanging on my walls is by friends and family. So not only is it the art itself I like having in view. That art also vokes the presence of various important people in my life, some of whom are gone but stay near through their art.

 

An interesting companion question is ... Is there art you love that you WOULDN’T want hanging on your wall? This might get at some differences and overlap between art and decor.

When you look at a picture of someone you love, you fall in love all over again.

my own need to cover up old nail holes

 

Well, that begs the question: Where did the old nail holes come from? I would assume they came for earlier pictures hanging on the wall. So the follow-on question, and the one the OP is interested in, is who hang the original picture on the wall - when there were no nail holes to cover up - and why did he/she do it? o_O

Perhaps there is, in humans, an inherent drive for "nesting"?

 

We make our spaces our own by decorating in ways that are meaningful to us. Whether it's things that carry some memory, family heirlooms and hand-me-downs, art, photos, or whatever- we fill our walls and spaces with things that soothe us and provide a psychic "place" of comfort for us. In doing so, we create for ourselves a respite from the World; we make a house our home. I'll go as far to say that it could come down to even the furniture & carpets, lighting, maybe everything.

 

Our home, especially now, in society's current advanced state of material dependency, is an extension of who and what we are -or think we are. We project ourselves for all to see, through our homes. We build them into spaces of things that are the fabric of our lives and the foundational accoutrements of our individual sensibilities. In doing so, we say "this is who I am"; we build a nice "nest" for ourselves, one we feel good about and one where we feel good as well.

Some people make more of it than others, but probably we all have it in us, instinctually, to some degree or other.

So the follow-on question, and the one the OP is interested in, is who hang the original picture on the wall - when there were no nail holes to cover up - and why did he/she do it? o_O

And I believe my comment in full provides an answer or two to that follow-on question being asked ...

Our home, especially now, in society's current advanced state of material dependency, is an extension of who and what we are -or think we are. We project ourselves for all to see, through our homes. We build them into spaces of things that are the fabric of our lives and the foundational accoutrements of our individual sensibilities. In doing so, we say "this is who I am"; we build a nice "nest" for ourselves, one we feel good about and one where we feel good as well.

Some people make more of it than others, but probably we all have it in us, instinctually, to some degree or other.

Good points nicely stated.

 

I think art often transcends the material. And there’s a sense in which a home that seems to reflect the personality of its inhabitant(s) operates on both a material and aesthetic level. Not only the things in a house but the way they’re arranged, the colors of the walls, the combinations of natural and artificial light as well as the incorporation of art can offer an intangible experience as well. The art hanging often is and goes beyond its material nature. A home (more, perhaps, than a house) can do so as well.

 

Right o, Sam I totally agree. I love art! We have more art than we have wall space for.

When I was much younger, much decoration was art, expressing distant places and people. These days it is mostly portraits of friends and family, most long gone, followed by scenics of places I lived or visited many years ago. I can speak to them and evoke mental responses. I recently visited a major art institute which I was familiar with, but this time with my teen aged granddaughter. It was interesting to see familiar things through a different set of eyes - and opinions.

To remember and to prove that we existed and still do exist.

Does Art serve as a form of language? and is creating it and sharing it part of communication? Often the making of art is called a form of expression. I'm thinking that the communication and expression isn't necessarily between the artist and others, it's often expressing a conversation and/or exploration with oneself, one we may not even know is taking place and in that sense, art becomes a window revealing the intersection intersection between one's subjectivity and objectivity and the process and product inform both the viewer and creator.

There's power in capturing time.

I think most people agree that a house without pictures on the wall has no life. Every room needs at least some furniture, something on the walls, and perhaps even flowers. Perhaps the question, why do we even create art, is more fundamental. Once you have art, you have to put it somewhere!

 

I sometimes wonder how future-proof 'photography' will be other than a series of video stills.

Eventually, there will be no distinction between stills cameras and video cameras. They will be one and the same. Pro Capture, seen on Olympus and Panasonic cameras (just to name two) is a hint of that. The still image, however it is captured, will always have power.

Hey, for once I totally agree with Karim!

Eventually, there will be no distinction between stills cameras and video cameras. They will be one and the same. Pro Capture, seen on Olympus and Panasonic cameras (just to name two) is a hint of that. The still image, however it is captured, will always have power.

 

Karim Ghantous, Sad Thought.

 

Sort of like spray and pray. Good for those with little ability or talent.

 

Banality of the lost.

 

Sad lost souls

Anyway, its always good...a photo.

The reality is this web site has, and has been, moderated to its death.

;))

 

Hey Ho we will still press that big button.

Give folks a badge and uniform...and …..

Photos, are a reflection of our soul.

 

We need to feel that soul.

Always have a photo. being a photographer.

 

Sort of proud being a photographer.

 

A magic in that word.