A Man

by Keiichirō Hirano

Her work seemed to him closer to graphic design than anything else. This reminded him of the familiar concept of the artistic quality of promotional representation, but he decided that there should be more discussion of its contrary, the promotional quality of artistic representation. The purpose of graphic design was to make people aware of the existence of something, whether an event or a commercial product or anything else. Otherwise it would be ignored as though it had truly never existed. Posters, for example, borrowed the power of the sublime to inform people of their subject’s existence, and in the process, that representation was occasionally elevated into the domain of art. But irrespective of capitalism and mass consumer society, didn’t art in fact originally function as publicity? For example, a blazingly vibrant sunflower in a flowerpot. A horse galloping across a prairie. A life of loneliness. The tragedy of war. Hatred borne inside. Loving someone. Being loved by no one . . . Couldn’t all artistic representation be thought of in the final analysis as an advertisement for these?

This reflexion of art and graphic design is very insightful, stimulating! Worthy to be in an essay about art appreciation.