The Human Condition

The human condition describes the unique features of a human being; it separates us and at the same time relates us to other living creatures. In this essay I will study paintings that translate human emotion, body language and facial expression into paint, how moods have been communicated by the human face and the artist who knew how to do it the best.

The idea of relating the human condition to art came to me when I started studying Edvard Munch and his history of isolation and darkness. I wanted to know why so many artists like him were somewhat disturbed not necessarily in a negative way, which led them to produce and what influenced them to create something different.

The Mona Lisa 1503-1519 by Leonardo Da Vinci (Fig 1), The Scream 1893 by Edvard Munch (Fig 2) and the Weeping Woman with Handkerchief 1937 by Pablo Picasso (Fig 3) are some of the most recognizable pieces of art in the world. Is this owing to the fame of their maker or curiosity of the human mind or is it the story behind these paintings that make them famous? Even in today’s world pictures of the human body and the human face dominate everything we look at. It is no coincidence that many paintings have been overstated or been painted in a misleading way, they are painted in a way to exaggerate human emotion. The human form has obsessed the world’s greatest artist and over thousands of years humans have recreated the human form in art. Is it true to say that we as humans are somewhat obsessed by ourselves and what we portray to others or is it more unconscious and what surrounds us, our environs, the events of our lives, that affect the emotions we contribute.

The Mona Lisa, has been a cultural icon for hundreds of years, this painting was even stolen on 21st ...

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...cation, satisfying our curiosity, exploring isolation, depression and death. There is no limit to which art has influenced every generation, from product labels to the way we design our homes, art affects us in ways we may not even notice. Art has affected the way we look at ourselves and the emotions we experience as human beings. In the same way our lives has affected art, and we can see how a visual representation of our inner beings can be expressed. I feel as a graphic artist today, I am strongly influenced by technology and software whereas artist before my time were influenced strongly by their surroundings, the events of their time and the influences of their individual lives. They had a unique ability to express through the subjects of their paintings, vivid emotions and were each able to influence and develop groundbreaking techniques in through their art.