The Relationship Between Language and Art – Art is Structured Like a Language

Art is structured like a language. It is simultaneously a conscious and intentional mental activity and a more irrational, unconscious form of expression. Art can involve a sense of sudden exhilaration and liberation and also contain a mass of intellectual and emotional reactions. Art has the power to evoke emotions and the power to shock, confuse, repel and enlighten. Language has very similar characteristics. Language is a tool we use to communicate with one another and to express our emotions and thoughts. Through the language of art we can also communicate and evoke response within the viewer.

Does artistic meaning lie beyond the sayable and therefore cannot be captured in language or does form in art function as a determinant if its expressive or emotional content is beyond the reach of language?

The nature and identity of the work of art is examined. If an object is created in the imagination; does it rest on a theory of linguistic expression? When we use language, it functions to communicate cognitive meaning and art functions to communicate emotive meaning.

In the case of deaf visual artists, is their art structured like a language? Language is not only verbal it can also be sign language and symbols. For a deaf person symbols and sign language give meaning and mental form from which he relies on to create his art.

Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a mental chain of development that might find some form. Ideas are based on language, so through language and symbols we can create art. Conceptual art is based on ideas; it is made to engage the mind of the viewer rather than his eye or emotions.

The more you study this topic the more you realize that you can not separate art from language. Art is language and language is art.