[WRITING] A valid interpretation of an artwork is dependent on an understanding of the artist’s intent and the context in which it was created.

An artwork is usually created with a purpose, under a certain context, to convey a certain message. This message can only be properly conveyed if there is a valid interpretation of the artwork itself. Although we often say that art is free for one to interpret, I felt that to reach that valid interpretation that will enable one to receive the message behind the artwork, one need to understand the artist’s intent and the context in which the artwork is created.

An artist’s intent and the context he is in affect the artwork greatly in many senses. The subject matter, colour choice, symbols that he uses would hold meanings in them in order to create a piece that is representative of his intent. If we can recognize the subject matter, the colour choice and the symbols in artwork but do not have an understanding of the purpose the artist has in mind and the context when creating the artwork, we will not be able to make use of the things we recognized and understand the artwork fully. Without knowing the artist’s intent and the context he is in, the art elements that we can recognize can lead us to many levels of interpretation of the work. They can be used to interpret an artwork into any other artwork instead of something that has a unique purpose and message in it.

We should also understand an artist’s intent and the context in which the artwork was created in order to prevent misinterpretation and therefore, negative critiques to a piece of artwork. For example, some artworks are created in a certain way because of a purpose the artist has in mind and an impact the artist want to achieve with the audience in a specific context, yet they were misinterpreted by some people as “vulgar” or “wrong” just because of uses of perhaps sensitive symbols and subject matters. To say that an artwork is “wrong” and hence give it negative critiques just based on what you see is a very serious offence because art is a form of expression and expression is something that should be given freedom and understanding, on top of that, it is unjustifiable for one to give an artwork negative critiques when one’s understanding of the artwork remained at surface depth.

Providing a valid interpretation of an artwork is also giving credits to the thoughts and creativity of an artist, therefore we should try to understand the intention and context of the artwork to arrive at the best interpretation of the artwork.