Contextualism or Formalism: What my philosophy of art is

I consider myself a formalist because I believe that art can exist for its own sake. In contrast, contextualism states that the purpose of art is meant to affect areas outside of the art itself. When creating artwork, I find myself an escapist. I like to run away for a moment from all the problems in the world and find myself. This may be seen as being too afraid, but I believe that in the end, the world is beyond our control. As a formalist, I value art that is original and shows good use of materials. While nothing is “original” per say, there is definitely a unique experience when artwork breaks away from what is conventionally accepted. The use of materials is imperative because no matter how creative you may be, there are certain skill requirements for creating an aesthetically pleasing piece. I’m drawn away from simplistic and pretentious art that tries to connect with a social issue. need something with great complexity and sense of realism for me to look at it longer than a few seconds. This isn’t to say that I don’t completely disagree with contextualism. In fact when executed well, a powerful message can be impactful. However, there comes to a point where artists can be too egotistical.