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What Is Art and What Is Its Role?

Various people have tried to explain the meaning of art, and they all intersect that art is a

way of expressing oneself through creative skills and imagination. In most cases, art is used to

express a person's feelings towards a given subject in the form of an object. This is what Langer

believes art is, and she additionally claims that art has a role in the society of helping a person to

express the feelings that they have deep within them and express them outwardly, "The primary

function of art is to objectify feeling so we can contemplate and understand it. It is the

formulation of so-called inward experience, the "inner life," (Langer 9). She also claims that art

is mandated in upkeeping the morals of a given society. The idea of art keeping up the morals in

the society is echoed by Tolstoy in his article What Is Art. In the article, Tolstoy claims that art is

used to maintain the morality of a given community, which is the culture of the people. Tolstoy

claims that art and morality are intertwined as various artists from various parts of the country

use art for various reasons; the primary reason is that they use art to condemn immorality in

society. Therefore, art must be something pure and live by the standards of art to person its

mandate of maintaining morals in the society. Tolstoy also claims that there is good and bad art.

The good art is the original art that expresses the original ideas. In contrast, the bad art is the art

that is unintelligible and incomprehensible, and it is incompatible with the law of God (Tolstoy
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4). Additionally, art is used to show what is right from what is wrong, and it can be used to help

people overcome prejudices and stereotypes in society (Tamara 263).

Beyonce's Artistic Journey

Beyonce is one of the most successful artists of all time. She has maintained fame from

when she was a teenager until now that she is married and a mother (Johnson 263). She has used

art to address various challenges affecting society, more so women, to the extent that some

people have branded her a feminist. However, she has balanced her failures and successes on

how she has used art. In her song, which runs the world, she flew around the world half-naked,

shaking her 'booty' in Infront of all sorts of audiences (Johnson 263). According to Tolstoy, art

should have some moral significance. However, this song by Beyonce has no morality, and how

he was dressed when performing the song shows that she did not value the artistic role of the

song to society. However, she also has her taste in success in the artistic world. She has used her

art to educate women and show them an example of how to become successful. Before her

entrance into international music, music was a male-dominated industry. However, she took over

the industry, and she has become one of the most successful musicians, and her journey has

inspired many other female artists, and now there are several female billionaire artists in the

music world. She has hosted several women in her franchise and taught them how to manoeuvre

in the male-dominated industry. As a result, she has impacted the knowledge and skills of these

women, who have also impacted the areas they have gone to.

Art In Countering Stereotypes

According to Diffey, art is used to maintain morality in society (Tolstoy 12).

Additionally, art promotes culture in society (Langer 10). Beyonce has been able to harmonize
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these two mandates on art in some of her music, and this has shown the community that they can

stand up against some evils. In the music industry, there is a lot of racial discrimination. The

musicians who are not white are treated as less successful musicians. In some scenarios, when a

black and a white musician perform a given song, the black musician can be reprimanded while

the white musician is praised. This has been the case in the career of Beyonce, who performed

the same songs as Madonna and in the very same way, but somehow the community perceived

that she was wrong and thus reprimanded her (Johnson 268). However, as required by Tolstoy,

who claims that art should be used to express the artist's ideas Beyonce went ahead and released

songs that were meant to rebuke how people perceived the people of colour. In recent times she

released a song name Brown Skin Girl. The song was meant to motivate the musicians of colour

to be proud of themselves and feel comfortable in their skin rather than try to change themselves

to become like their white counterparts who also have their flaws. Beyonce also never changed

her way of music despite the many uproars that made her sister change her type of music to less

explicit content. In 2011 she released the song Girls Run the World the song earned her credit

and hated in equal portions because, from one side, she was empowering women by telling them

that they should run the world, while on the other side, people perceived that she was a feminist

(Johnson 265). Nevertheless, she was able to impart a positive thing on women with regard to

fighting for what they believe in. she has also produced songs such as Black is King; this was

song also useful in helping the minority communities to feel comfortable in their own skin. Thus,

as required by Tolstoy, who suggests that art should be used to impart morality in society,

Beyonce was able to impart morality by countering racial stereotypes and discrimination.

Diffey, Terry. Tolstoy's What is Art?'. Routledge, 2014.

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This is a book by Leo Tolstoy that was authored in 1896 in which he tries to make a

connection between nature and the purpose of art. He approaches the definition of art from the

perspective of art being a channel for expressing moral values. In the book, Tolstoy refrains from

defining artistic content from the angle of expressing oneself; instead, he perceives that art

should be taken as an avenue for storing and conveying moral values. In the book, Tolstoy

claims that art is an abstract concept of an experience or a feeling that is stimulated in the

intended audience, and he suggests that it is wrong to approach art from the concept of beauty as

beauty is another concept that one cannot define objectively whereas art can be defined

objectively. In the document, Tolstoy also argues that there is good and bad art. However, good

art must be religious art. In the document, Tolstoy argues that art is universal as it can influence

people from all corners of the world. On the aspect of teaching and learning art, the document

suggests that art is something that cannot be taught in class. It's something that a person

possesses, and it can only be expressed when a person has the talent to express their inner

thoughts in art. Additionally, the aspect of art being universal is vital for everyone. in all aspects,

art represents the conditions of human beings, and that is why he claims that art is a universal

thing. In the content of the meaning of art, the article suggests that art should contain some

sincere feelings, original thoughts and feelings, and these can be portrayed from a religious

angle. As a result, art should be used by religion to address the issue of morality in society.

Langer, Susanne K. "The cultural importance of the arts." Journal of aesthetic

education 1.1 (1966): 5-12.

This is a document that was authored but Susan Langer on the importance of arts in

cultures. According to the document, all forms of art are vital in keeping the human culture alive

and that they aim to express the feeling of the artist that cannot be explained. In particular, she
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suggests that "objectify feeling so we can contemplate and understand it. It is the formulation of

so-called inward experience, the "inner life". She also claims that art is vital in the education of

young people as it helps instil in them the culture of the given area that they are growing up in. It

also stimulates the mentality of creativity in doing children and thus makes the children more

useful to the issues facing the society that they are growing up in
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Works Cited

Beyoncé "Run the World (Girls) (Video - Main Version)." YouTube, Beyonce Records,

18 May 2011, youtube/VBmMU_iwe6U.

Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer. "Black is King." YouTube, Beyonce records, 30 July 2020,

youtube/agCgvFTJeRs.

Beyonce. "Brown Skin Girl." Youtube, Beyonce records, 2021, youtube/vRFS0MYTC1I.

Diffey, Terry. Tolstoy's What is Art?'. Routledge, 2014.

Johnson, Elizabeth. "All Hail the Queen." Challenging Images of Women in the Media:

Reinventing Women's Lives (2012): 145.

Langer, Susanne K. "The cultural importance of the arts." Journal of aesthetic education 1.1

(1966): 5-12.