Seventeen thousand years ago, art was used to tell a story for generations to come.  It was also used for religious or ceremonial purposes. As society became more and more industrialized through the ages, the vision of art became a form of creating something beautiful, something that is pleasing to the eye and inspiring for the soul.

Vincent Van Gogh created a painting entitled “Almond Blossom”, representing new life.  This piece was a gift for his brother, Theo, and sister-in-law, Jo, for the birth of their son, Vincent Willem.  In a letter Theo wrote, “As we told you, we’ll name him after you, and I’m making the wish that he may be as determined and as courageous as you”.  Almond Blossom stayed very close to the Van Gogh’s and Vincent Willem later founded the Van Gogh Museum where the Almond Blossom resides.

Not only being inspiring and visually appealing to the eye, art began to convey emotion heavily, through the use of extravagant colors and being highly abstract.

A great example of this would be the very influential artistic prodigy Pablo Picasso.  He created the collage and brought in the style of Cubism using shapes and colors to represent objects.  His painting, “The Three Musicians”, is a representation of the end of an era between his close friends Guillaume Apollinaire, who had passed away of the Spanish flu in 1918, and Max Jacob, who entered the monastery in 1921.  Picasso tells stories of his personal life and the state of society in his time through his artwork.

By bringing art to life and life to art, Icon makes it possible for these pieces of art to inspire and live on to tell their story.

Pablo Picasso:  https://www.iconshoes.ca/product-category/pablo-picasso/

Vincent Van Gogh:  https://www.iconshoes.ca/product-category/artists/vincent-van-gogh/