On a recent WaPo article by Sebastian Smee about the artist Jack Whitten
“Why does art exist? Not so much to beat up on toast as to enact and embody a whole other set of possibilities. The possibility, for instance, of continual transformation. Of richness and subtlety and surprise. The possibility of promiscuity when it comes to meanings, and susceptibility when it comes to ideas and emotions. The possibility that all things known and unknown are interpenetrated.”
This is an important question and one that is difficult to answer. When I was a college teacher, I had a colleague who taught philosophy and bluntly told his students he thought art is immoral. I think art exists to make beauty from life’s pain. Sometimes it is just about calming yourself.
It brings to mind a 1980s pop song called “Asleep” by The Smiths. Here are a few lines:
Sing me to sleep
Sing me to sleep
I’m tired and I
I want to go to bed
,,,
There is another world
There is a better world
Oh, there must be
Well, there must be