The fact that art originated in ancient times, today every middle school student knows. The first cave paintings that reached our contemporaries date back to the Upper Paleolithic. It was then that the foundations of both the material and spiritual life of mankind began to be laid.
There are several points of view on the origin of art. The first belongs to idealistic art criticism, which claims that art owes its appearance to the biological nature of man, which is distinctive from all other earthly creatures. Due to the fact that religion and magic appeared in people's lives, people began to create their own unique works.
In fact, the first functions of art came down to trying to influence nature using magic. It is unlikely that any other creature will perform magic rituals before the hunt, although games and peculiar ritual "dances" are characteristic of many earthly creatures. But this is more likely to occur at the level of instinct, and not as a result of analytical inferences.
Another point of view belongs to G.V. Plekhanov and his followers. They argue that labor and only labor is the root cause of art.
Again, recalling the ritual before the hunt (and it is hard not to consider labor activity), we define the functions of the art of the initial period as a reflection of labor activity - once, and the subject of labor - two. After all, it was practically impossible to perform a cave painting without special devices and without certain skills (and not only artistic taste and creative thinking).
The third point of view (perhaps it has a birthday in this article) on the origin and development of art does not refute any of these statements, but only tries to promote their reconciliation.
Indeed, labor is available to varying degrees to every living creature: almost all living things on Earth build their homes (burrows, nests, hollows), get food, and even prepare supplies for the winter, take care of the offspring. But not a single creature, except man, sculpts sculptures, does not paint pictures. Although many birds can and can sing. True, without words.
This means that it is impossible to discard the exceptional biological human being from the accounts. We don’t know whether animals can understand the beauty of nature or music, but experiments show that cows give more milk if they are allowed to listen to classical music. Some dogs and cats try to “sing along” by listening to certain pieces of music.
Probably, not only people have access to high feelings and understanding of the beautiful. And the main functions of art today are precisely based on the ability to influence the senses of people, conveying to them the secret thoughts and feelings of the author of a work of art.
Another thing is that it is hardly possible to meet a fox who, in its burrow, will drag a statuette of a dancing ballerina, which is absolutely useless from her point of view. And if he drags, it is only so that her offspring have the opportunity to play with her in plenty and sharpen their sharp teeth. An elegant figure in animals will not cause any aesthetic feeling.
Actually, gradually, man began to look for practical benefits from art. And if at first the songs were born simply because, as they say, “the soul sang”, then gradually words began to appear that already had a meaning and purpose. So the functions of art began to acquire a social character.
People, viewing sculptures or paintings, listening to music or singing, reading a book or poetry, immersed in theatrical art or cinema, not only enjoy on a sensual level. Today, as never before, the social functions of art are defined. Art can relax, giving bliss, and can call for barricades.
It is unlikely that anyone can watch films without tears, which depict plots of unfair humiliation, both moral and physical, weaker. Good art should play an educational role in society, make people better, cleaner, kinder.
Often today, a question arises among art critics about whether it is worth counting ancient figurines depicting a sexual act between people of different sexes or the same thing, between people and animals, objects of art, or should they be banned as pornography? If recognized as art, then what are the functions of art of this kind? But this question remains open so far.