Valery Zyuz

Art always reflects. Throughout history, art was used as a political instrument and at the same time under a sense of crisis art may seem to have a minor role in our life. How can a painting, a song, or a photograph change something so big as a global crisis or war?

Art is a mirror of your soul. Art shows you something that you can not see in a regular mirror, it shows you emotions. Therapists use art to uncover issues that people find hard to talk about. Sometimes when you process your emotions you start to judge them, to give them explanations. The mind will try to define you and usually not in your favor. Art may release you from the struggle.

Fear and doubts are following us in every new adventure. They are our trusted companions that inform us about possible failures and impossible horror stories.

The hardest step towards freedom is to release control. Art gives a place where you can be yourself. Art has no rules, no limitations. Are you ready to be free? Do you believe in art and can follow it blindly to discover who you really are?

The last part of my brief history of Western art is containing several of the most popular movements of the 20th century. All these styles are still popular among modern artists and continue to develop. Art is transforming all the time, artists explore the existing and discover new ways of seeing the world. Modern art can be very confusing by its simplified form and unconventional representation. It's blurring the definitions of right and wrong by challenging the public and exploring the mind.

At the beginning of the 20th century world was shaken by wars and artists continue to provoke art conceptions. There were a lot of different movements starting out simultaneously. Art took a more philosophical approach and the abstract expression became even more detached from reality.

WWI evoked a lot of reformative art movements. In the midst of the war, artists were interested in the real world even less. They were exploring the abstract by deconstructing the physical forms. It was a period of going beyond eye vision and known rules.

The period between Pompei ruins discovery and the beginning of the WWI was a wonderful time of self-exploration. Artists started to be more independent from academies and spent more time outside rather than in the studio. It was a period when psychoanalysis began to develop. People started to be more aware of their feelings and individual perceptions. Art reflected the inner world of the artist and his view of the world through new technics and improvisations.

Creativity rise from chaos. The western world started to crumble after multiple wars and church oppressions. It was a time of protests against old beliefs and attempts to make sense out of the cruel world. The renaissance era is the rise of the human mind over outdated structures that did not work anymore. Science and philosophy started to spread across the globe. Artists started to create more independent art, while the church was looking for new ways to empress and hold the power.

Art is an undeniable part of human beings' development. Humans started to create a world around them from the very first steps of the conscious mind. I want to give you a glimpse of creative minds from different periods of the western world, from shamans' paintings in caves to the most abstract and bizarre modern pieces. Through art, you can discover the world as a place of creation and exploration. You will see how art reflects society and becomes a mirror of who we are. The first part will cover the art of our ancestors in caves to the first brave artists leaving the Church motives for a more individualistic approach.

This story is about following dreams and why there is never the right time to do it.

I have been enjoying creating images since about the age of 15. For the time I was 28 years old photography became a source of relief and self-therapy.