Why do people create art?

Art, understood as the primal human desire for creative expression, is as old as mankind itself.

The impetus for producing art is multifaceted. For example, art as a cult object supports religious or secular rituals – to this day an occasion for societies to make art. Pictures offer the opportunity to tell stories without words or writing. Art is also used for self-expression, as a symbol of status and claim to power. The aim of applied art is to make everyday life more functional and to embellish it.

Art can also be a means of criticizing social conditions; it can have the aspiration to change society. Artists also use it as a means of self-expression and as a medium to communicate the unsayable.