The influence of art on people's thoughts and feelings. The influence of contemporary art on the development of personality

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The influence of art on humans

“The task of art is to excite the heart,” the famous French writer and philosopher of the Enlightenment, Claude Adrian Helvetius, once said. It seems to me that that short phrase already contains the answer to the question about the influence of literary, artistic, musical and other works on a person.

What happens to us when we see a beautiful picture in front of us, hear a wonderful melody or watch a performance on a theater stage? Our soul seems to come to life, and many new thoughts immediately appear in our heads. Everyday problems fade into the background, and their place is taken by memories of the pleasant moments of our lives.

Art awakens vivid emotions in us. This can be a feeling of joy and euphoria or, conversely, light sadness and sadness. Many works are specially created for the purpose of making a person think about certain problems and rethink something for themselves.

When a person himself is a creator, the influence of art on him is especially strong. Sometimes, obsessed with a new idea, a master can completely immerse himself in his illusory world, forgetting about everything around him. At this moment, he lives only with his dream, and such endless devotion to it allows him to ultimately create a real masterpiece.

We need art almost as much as we need air, water or food. What else can lift our spirits so much when we are suddenly depressed, give us inspiration, make us believe in our strength!

I have noticed more than once how pleasant it is sometimes to walk through an art gallery, look into a museum, or just visit a cinema. After such sessions of contact with beauty, your soul immediately becomes light.

Art makes us kinder and more sympathetic, develops in us the ability to empathize with the grief of others and respond to people’s requests. In a word, it makes us better! Therefore, I want as many new creations as possible to appear in the world every day, changing and transforming our lives.

Every person strives for beauty. That’s why many people, when arranging their “nest,” place figurines on chests of drawers and flowerpots on window sills. They also “decorate” the walls with paintings.

These works of painting not only bring aesthetic pleasure, but also have a huge impact on a person.

“Communication” with works made with paints on canvas improves health and improves a person’s psycho-emotional state. And both when contemplating paintings and when creating them.

How exactly art of painting affects a person, the editors of the online publication will tell you in more detail.

The art of painting is a powerful tool for personal development

Pictures have a positive effect on brain function

By drawing, we thereby activate brain function. The same thing happens if we simply look at works of art. Neuroscientists came to this conclusion after conducting an electroencephalogram of the brain.

Drawing pictures and contemplating them uses both hemispheres of the brain. By forcing the gyrus to work with high activity, these activities develop concentration, improve analytical thinking, and also slow down the aging process of the brain.

Therefore it is not surprising why painting and visiting art galleries are recommended for older people.

Painting is the best cure for physical ailments and mental disorders

After conducting numerous observations, scientists discovered that art of painting has a positive effect on a person’s well-being. Thus, being surrounded by paintings relieves headaches and other unpleasant sensations, calms the nervous system, and heals mental wounds.

In addition, using paints on canvas and viewing works of figurative art prevents nervous breakdowns, and also relieves such frequent “guests” of our time as worries, anxiety, stress and depression.

Some medical institutions even treat with “creativity,” inviting patients to express their negative emotions using paints on a sheet of paper.

Fine art fills a person with various emotions

So, if a picture is painted in light colors, it reflects kindness, love and sincerity, then a person will absorb all these emotions and will certainly give them to others.

According to scientists, each painting has its own energy, which affects the subconscious, and sometimes changes thoughts and even worldview.

And if the picture, on the contrary, carries negative energy: everything on the canvas is depicted in dark and dull colors, negative thoughts and aggression predominate, then the person will be filled with the same bad emotions and will begin to splash them out on others to his detriment.

The art of painting is comparable to falling in love

It turns out that contemplating the paintings of great artists, you can get the same emotions that are present when falling in love. Scientists at London College came to this conclusion.

While studying the brain, they discovered that when looking at an object visual arts and the presence of a loved one nearby, the same areas in the brain are activated that evoke the emotions of falling in love.

At the same time, there is a surge of dopamine, a hormone that gives a feeling of satisfaction and pleasant sensations.

To confirm this theory, neurobiology professor Semir Zeki conducted a study. Its essence was that he showed volunteers paintings by great artists. Looking at them, the subjects increased blood flow to those parts of the brain that are responsible for the feeling of love.

The paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet and Sandro Botticelli had a particularly powerful influence.

“Beauty will save the world” - this phrase of the great writer F.M. Dostoevsky was said in one of his works not by chance. Indeed art of painting gives aesthetic pleasure. And along with it, it relieves pain, stress and depression.

In addition, the creation and contemplation of paintings promotes self-development and self-improvement, instills a love of beauty, and also gives a variety of shades of emotions, regardless of what is depicted on the canvas: landscape, portrait, still life or abstraction.

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Let's start with the fact that the human brain absorbs any information like a sponge. Therefore, any music, literature, painting, etc. capable of influencing us, although we are not always aware of it. Scientists have long proven that, for example, listening to Mozart’s music develops our intellectual abilities, and Vivaldi’s works can cure depression, neurosis and irritability.

In the next study of the influence of music on humans, scientists divided a group of schoolchildren into two teams. One listened to rock while solving a difficult problem, and the other listened to the music of Mozart. The second group completed the task 60% better than the first. Many similar studies have been conducted. And it all comes down to one thing: from listening to low-quality rap, pop and hard rock, a person gradually loses his intellectual abilities, and from listening to classics, on the contrary, he gains.

By the way, pay attention to the lyrics of modern songs. Agree, this is a vivid example of the bad taste and low intelligence of the performer. But these same texts are “absorbed” by our brain. Therefore, limit your listening to such songs as much as possible.

Painting also has a significant influence on us. There are many well-known facts when people fainted from the impression when they saw a picture. Some people say they cry when watching the original “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son.” This picture has a very powerful impact. Of course, if you see it in the picture, there will be no effect. You need to see the original.

However, literature has the greatest influence on us. Recognized classics shape our worldview, can radically change our views and teach us to look at life situations from different angles. And magazines with scandalous stories about celebrities, detective stories by Daria Dontsova and other “garbage” only “clutter up” our psyche.

I teach my children to read the classics. She not only develops intellectually, but also from a very early age forms such character qualities as honor, conscience, nobility. A person will grow up spiritually healthy if his parents are able to instill a love of quality literature at the right time.

The influence of cinema on our psyche is also important. A film, like a book, shapes our beliefs and attitudes. And this is not fiction. It has been confirmed by research that those children who from an early age watched movies with a lot of violence usually grow up to be aggressive.

Unfortunately, now society is dominated by mass culture. And it is all saturated with dirt, stupidity, scandals and intrigues. Therefore, to minimize its impact, try to read more classics, watch quality films and go to museums. In this way, you will at the same time rise above the gray masses, which is the vast majority. You will become more interesting in communication, and you will form your own beliefs, and not stereotyped ones imposed by society.

In modern society there has been a clear trend towards the development of logic. Dry logical thinking is necessary to assimilate information, move up the career ladder, and obtain a high social status. Often, even when communicating with others, people build a dialogue based on rational calculations, and this absolutely does not contribute to the emergence of sincere relationships.

Against this background, the role of feelings and emotions is greatly underestimated. Many people don’t even think about the fact that the emotional sphere also needs development. As a result, the personality turns out to be disharmonious. She stands firmly on her feet, but inside she feels empty, she does everything right, but without a soul.

It is precisely because people pay so little attention to their emotions that there are a huge number of passers-by on the street with “empty eyes” and sad faces. We carefully “suppress” our own experiences, trying to be reasonable and respond adequately. If you do this all the time, it will happen accumulation of a load of unreacted experiences. They don’t go away, but find a way out through illness (mostly psychosomatic), constant dissatisfaction, irritability and emptiness. Art will help correct such a deplorable situation.

The healing power of art

Art- a sphere of human life that touches the “strings of the soul.” By drawing, playing music, doing sculpting, writing poetry and prose, creating appliqués and handicrafts, a person gives vent to accumulated experiences, fears, and mental stress. Scientists have proven that people who systematically engage in creativity are more stress-resistant, they better assimilate new information, have more flexible thinking, adapt faster to new circumstances, find optimal solutions in non-standard situations and notice the beauty in everyday situations and everyday things. Passive perception of works of art also has a similar effect: listening to your favorite music, watching films, reading books, perceiving paintings.

The experimental results showed that neurogenesis(formation of new neurons) occurs even in adulthood. Its intensity directly depends on lifestyle. The education system and work environment are almost entirely aimed at developing the left hemisphere of the brain, so you need to independently develop the right hemisphere, which is responsible for the emotional sphere. For this it is important to be creative. Many people say that they don’t know how to draw, so there’s no point in wasting time on it. But the main thing is not the impeccable result, but the process of creation itself. Therefore, you should not limit yourself, you need to find an interesting field of activity and create, “pouring” the accumulated baggage of emotions into creativity.

Effective art methods that allow you to quickly get rid of negative experiences:

1. "Drawing"

Take pencils (pens or markers are not suitable for this purpose). Remove all dark shades from the set. Then take an A5 sheet of paper and start filling the white space with bright colors. This will allow you to take your mind off negative thoughts and relax a little.

1. State harmonization.

To harmonize the work of the right and left hemispheres (emotions and logic), take a pencil or pen in two hands and at the same time begin to draw the same symbols. These can be geometric shapes, ornaments, simple drawings. At first it will be difficult to do, but after a few attempts the result will improve. Draw 5-7 characters like this. This will allow you to stabilize your condition and look at the problematic situation from a new perspective.

The ancient Greek thinker Aristotle believed that the ability of art to influence the spiritual world of man is based on imitation of reality. Highly appreciating literary creativity, Aristotle assigned a special role to tragedy. He considered the purpose of the tragedy catharsis(from the Greek katharsis - purification), purification of the soul through empathy for the heroes. Going through catharsis, a person rises spiritually.

The history of artistic culture has recorded many cases when the perception of a work of art served as an incentive to perform certain actions, sometimes to change the way of life. Art influences not just one human ability or aspect of spiritual life, but the spiritual world of man as a whole. It influences the entire system of human attitudes. Thus, the exciting sounds of the song “Holy War” raised peaceful Soviet people to a mortal battle with the fascist brown plague.

The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr wrote: “The reason why art can enrich us is its ability to remind us of harmonies beyond the reach of systematic analysis.” In art, in a special artistic form, universal, eternal problems are illuminated: what is good and evil, love, freedom, personal dignity, what is a person’s calling and duty.

Introduction to art encourages a person to comprehend his life attitudes and values, and to better understand his problems. Often fictional characters are perceived as real people from whom you can learn a lot, and with whom you can even consult. Thanks to art, a person gets the opportunity to live many different lives and learn lessons for himself from them. Reading a book or watching a movie, we are transported into the world of images they create, which prompt us to think, give rise to experiences,

memories and premonitions. In this way, each of them joins the values ​​of culture, absorbs the experience accumulated by humanity.

Aesthetic attitude to the world.Aesthetics(from the Greek aisthetikos - related to sensory perception) is one of the philosophical disciplines that studies a person’s relationship to the world based on ideas about the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base, etc. Aesthetics also studies the sphere of artistic activity of people.

In our life, the beautiful and the ugly, the heroic, the sublime and the base, the tragic and the comic really coexist. We express our aesthetic appreciation when we say: “What a beautiful day!” At the same time, the heart is filled with a feeling of joy from the warm sun, the first soft green leaves on the trees, and the singing of birds. Or we say: “What wonderful words!” And this means that the words we heard not only warmed our soul, but also filled us with a sense of beauty with their sound. At the same time, we also notice the ugly, the base, which causes us a feeling of grief and rejection. It is unpleasant for us when we see dirt on the street, when the harmony of human relationships is disturbed. When buying clothes, making repairs in the house, even preparing food, we are guided not only by considerations of practicality and usefulness. We also want it to be beautiful.

Beautiful is a central concept in aesthetics. All its other concepts are somehow related to beauty, expressing different facets of the sensory perception of the world and the aesthetic assessment of its phenomena. We call phenomena that have the highest perfection and undeniable aesthetic value beautiful.

Aesthetic attitude to the world- this is his sensory perception associated with the need of people to build life in accordance with the laws of beauty, the desire to make life beautiful. The sphere of aesthetic includes seoya aesthetic consciousness And aesthetic activity. 200

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (c. 1503)

Aesthetic consciousness has three levels:

Aesthetic perception;

Aesthetic taste (system of aesthetic attitudes and ideals of the individual);

Aesthetic theories (philosophically meaningful aesthetic experience of humanity).

Everyone knows the saying “There are no comrades according to taste.” It means that our aesthetic perception of the world is subjective, individual and unique. What seems beautiful to one may seem completely ugly to another.

Sometimes we say about a person: “He has taste.” At the same time, we single out a person with a sense of taste, rather, not by reasoning, but on the basis of direct perception of his behavior and appearance. We appreciate that

how he dresses, what kind of interior he lives in, how he behaves, how he speaks, etc.

Aesthetic taste- this is a person’s ability, on the basis of an emerging feeling of pleasure or displeasure, to distinguish the beautiful from the ugly in art and reality, to give an aesthetic assessment of various phenomena, objects, and events.

Aesthetic taste develops through the experience of communicating with the beautiful in nature and in people, as well as through acquaintance with works of art. If from childhood a person hears nothing but musical vulgarity, he is unlikely to be able to perceive and appreciate classical music and develop his musical taste. Aesthetic taste is easily instilled in a child in a family where politeness and respect for each other, a love of cleanliness and neatness are established, and where swear words are not used in communication. And vice versa, in an atmosphere of foul language, rudeness, and cruelty, it is very difficult to form aesthetic taste.

Bad taste manifests itself in different ways. A person with bad taste mistakes external beauty, loudness and tackiness for true beauty. For people with undeveloped taste, it is typical to gravitate towards what is catchy, easy to understand and does not require thought or effort. Such people are more satisfied with purely entertaining works of art, art of primitive forms. Often we also have to deal with a claim to the only correct aesthetic assessment, with a disdainful attitude towards the artistic preferences of other people. Really good taste requires modesty.

Spheres of aesthetic activity.Aesthetic activity- this is the spiritual activity of a person, which involves, first of all, the creation of works of art, their perception and judgment about them. The spheres of aesthetic activity also include the aesthetics of nature, the aesthetics of work, everyday life, and human relationships.

Aesthetic activity is carried out according to the laws of beauty. Thanks to it, a person enters into an aesthetic relationship with the surrounding reality. He cheats, 202

improves and develops his abilities and his inner, spiritual world as a whole.

Aesthetics of nature. The beauty of the world around us has always excited man's imagination and awakened his feelings. Admiration for the beauty of nature inspires people to create works of art. Let us recall, for example, “The Seasons” by the Italian composer A. Vivaldi or the wonderful landscapes of I. Levitan, I. Shishkin, and our fellow countryman V. Byalynitsky-Biruli. People have an inherent desire to transform nature. An example of this is gardening art. We ourselves also belong to nature. When decorating it, we must take care of our own beauty, the development of flexibility, the plasticity of our body, the harmony of voice and gesture.

V. K. Byalynitsky-Birulya. Spring Waters (1930)

Aesthetics of work. For a long time, people have strived to make labor tools and household utensils not only convenient and practical, but also beautiful (ornament on ceramic pots, painted vases, carved platbands, etc.). In modern labor aesthetics, design occupies a special place - Artistic design of aesthetic appearance

industrial products. Much attention is paid to the aesthetic design of workplaces.

Aesthetics of everyday life. Everyday life is an important part of human life, covering the world of everyday activities not related to production. By organizing meals, recreation, entertainment, communicating with each other, decorating their homes or clothes, people in fact realize aesthetic ideals and values ​​that are developed by society and are fully accepted by them.

Aesthetics of human relations. The sphere of communication and human relations is the area where the aesthetic perception of the world merges with the moral. Beauty here is usually associated with good, and ugliness with evil. Beauty of behavior presupposes the manifestation of a friendly, respectful attitude towards a person. It is closely related to the culture of speech and general education. Politeness and following the rules of etiquette help build truly human relationships and make our communication attractive and worthy. Business communication usually involves following strict rules. In informal communication (within family, among friends), people express their emotions more freely, using expressive facial expressions, various gestures, intonations, etc. If a person is accustomed to swear words, if he cannot express himself other than by shouting or insults, then this speaks of a lack of aesthetic culture and simply bad manners. In communication, it is important to find aesthetically and morally acceptable forms of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings.

Questions and tasks

1 . What is the specificity of art? 2. What types of art do you know? How are they different? 3. What does aesthetics study? What concepts does she use? 4. How does aesthetic taste develop? 5. Name the main areas of aesthetic activity. What are the features of the manifestation of aesthetic taste in them? 6. What art do you consider modern? 7. What do you understand by classical art and how do you feel about it?

Morality

Social functions of morality. All people in everyday behavior must obey certain rules and norms. Some of these rules and regulations are of a specialized nature (building codes, traffic rules, etc.). Morality regulates the behavior of people in all areas of life.

Legal norms, laws, job descriptions, charters of organizations, customs, traditions, and public opinion play an important role in people’s lives. All these forms of social influence on the behavior of an individual are related to morality, but do not completely coincide with it. The peculiarity of morality is that it is internal regulator of behavior.

So, the first and fundamental social function of morality is regulatory The universality of morality as a regulator of human behavior does not lie in the fact that it contains clear instructions for all occasions. Morality gives, rather, the most general instructions, for example, it prescribes being kind to people. This is not a recipe, following which can bring some benefit, but a call to be human not only in appearance, but also in essence.

A moral act is performed not under coercion, but because of a person’s own conviction. Therefore, the second function of morality is to cultivate in each person a sense of self-worth that does not allow him to commit base, unworthy acts. This function can be called educational.

The moral character of a person is its holistic characteristic, covering or affecting everything that a person does, thinks about, and lives with. Human morality is, in fact, synonymous with humanity. Morality indicates to each of us in which direction our spiritual development should occur in order for the humanity in us to grow, strengthen, and not degrade.

Moral regulation of people’s behavior also performs another very important function - unity, consolidation society. Globalization processes lead to the fact that the world social system becomes unstable,

it constantly experiences conflicts and upheavals, the consequences of which can be large-scale. Under these conditions, it is easy to lose your head, get confused and begin to take inappropriate actions.

We are witnessing with our own eyes the weakening of social ties between people, the loss of the sense of human solidarity. Only reliance on morality can save us from trouble and prevent it from happening again in the 21st century. social catastrophes that marked the last century. In conditions of a social crisis, cold calculation does not always suggest the best way to solve complex social problems. Morality contains an unconditional prohibition on inhumane actions that humiliate human dignity and threaten the life and health of people. This can be seen as manifestations humanizing social function of morality.

The moral function of art. Art is rightly called human studies. In literary works, music, and painting, the human essence is revealed in an artistic and figurative form, and moral and other problems of people’s lives are discussed. Art helps a person to realize and understand himself myself and other people, to comprehend their moral duty.

In the images of art, the plots of works of art, perhaps the most important thing is a person’s search for the meaning of life, true values, the struggle between good and evil, the clash of desire and duty. All artistic creativity is permeated with moral quests. Art influences human morality not by preaching, but by depicting situations in which the heroes of works must make moral choices. Thus, many literary heroes and film characters come across the selfish selfishness of some people, the indifference or moral blindness of others, and in a difficult struggle pave the way to a new moral position, to their own interpretation of good and evil, duty, responsibility. The hero, as it were, experiments in relation to the moral foundations of life and forces viewers, readers, and listeners to think through the content of these experiments and draw their own conclusions. 206

K. P. Bryullov. The Last Day of Pompeii (1833)

Through the means of art it is possible even to give evil an outwardly attractive form, to convey to error the external signs of truth. However, this does not relieve any of us from the responsibility for the correct interpretation of these plots, since we are free in our assessment and moral choice.

The relationship between religion and morality. Each religion is based on certain moral ideals, the exponents of which can be God himself, his messengers, holy ascetics, etc. Let us consider the relationship between moral and religious norms using the example of Christianity. The main way to establish Christian moral standards was their inclusion in the text of the Bible. These norms are of the highest importance for Christians, because their source is considered to be the will of God.

The main positive moral norm here is the requirement of a humane attitude towards people. The Gospels contain two different formulations of it. First - “As you want people to do to you, do so too.”

with them” - can be called the golden rule of morality. It is both a requirement to do good and a criterion of morality, a way to find out which action is good and which is bad. The second formulation, containing the requirement of humanism, sounds like this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Bible also enshrines many other moral standards: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie (more precisely, do not bear false witness), honor your father and mother, feed the hungry, do not insult people, do not be angry with people in vain, make peace with those with whom quarreled, etc.

Religion does not create anew moral standards for people's lives, but can help strengthen them, reinforcing them with its authority. However, religious faith does not relieve a person of responsibility for his moral choice, for the morality of his actions.