Art provides many benefits to society.
The value of fine art is dependent on context. For some, art is only as valuable as its auction price, while for others it is a necessity for personal and cultural health and happiness. The value of art changes over time as well; 500 years ago its value was primarily religious and social, while today it is seen as a far more personal and individualistic pursuit.
Recognizing and Creating Beauty
Henri Matisse said that great art should be like a comfortable armchair, and many people over the years appear to agree with him. The sheer joy of pleasing shapes and colors is sufficient justification for the existence of art, and decoration is one of its widely appreciated values. Art can reflect the beauty of other phenomena, as in portraits or landscapes, or it can create beauty that has never been seen before, as in the intriguing mysteries of abstraction.
Making the Invisible Visible
Along with writing, the fine arts are the main means whereby humans express the ineffable, and share things which cannot be seen, heard or touched. Through abstraction, or through the subtle interpretations that are a vital part of representational art, the artist shares feelings, mysteries and phenomena that are never captured by a camera or a microphone.
Social Cohesion
Art is frequently used to bring people together and to create solidarity. This can be a positive thing, as when groups of people are moved by emotional imagery to commit themselves to better the world, or a quite negative thing, as in the propaganda of demagogues, many of whom understand the power of art and turn it to their own purposes.
Self-Expression
One of the simpler values of fine art is its role in allowing people to express what they are feeling and how they see the world. Whether a person is a professional artist and shares the work with the world, or creates solely for personal enjoyment, art is valuable as a means of allowing individuals to learn about themselves and the world.
History
Although with the advent of widespread literacy, books and record keeping, the role of art as historical record has lessened, it played that role for thousands of years. Portraying past events in visual form helped generations of people to remember their past, both collective and personal. Today, history continues to be recorded in artistic form, although these forms now move in the form of video, television and films.
