Utilitarian

​

Oils on glass window pane 66"x36" - November 2017. Jasmand painted this abstract in order to block the view between the living room and the bathroom in his house in the Himalayas.  While using the whole palette of colours, was jasmand trying to depict the various shades of the day to day life? Or the painter restricted himself to the utilitarian aspect of the art? Can art and utility be always seen as separate phenomena?  Some would argue that art often has purpose and is not just about the magic. According to them, the purpose served by  art can be political, social, cultural, publicity-oriented, ethical, memorial, communicative, religious, descriptive, and expressive.

 

Expression has utility. Expanding how people see the world is useful. Even abstraction would seem to have a human purpose in terms of the relationship between thought and vision and being able to disconnect, to whatever extent, from the discursive. Hence art has utility in the sense of practical application, or even in the formal Utilitarian sense of promoting the Greatest Happiness.

​

Does this painting convey a meaning, if at all any, to you?