The quote “Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” by Pablo Picasso relates to the art Area Of Knowledge, which is important to determine for further examination on this topic. The specific art form I’ll be focusing on is theater and Performing Arts. This quote by Paulo Picasso he’s both true and false at the same time, because it is very contradictory in this specific case. Everything in theater is a lie which helps us reach a truth. To properly assess this, we need to outline both the truth and the lies in theater which eventually brings us to what it boils down to. For this specific example sense-perception would have to be taken into consideration as the audience Only gathers and understands what is happening and what is being portrayed through the senses
The lies in theater are mainly superficial, but ironically are the main components of theater. The plot, characters, set, setting is a lie. The actor’s job is to lie well enough to the audience in order to portray a specific emotion or set of emotions no matter how genuine they may seem. Be frank, everything that is physical and theater is untruthful. Even if a play is meant to be an exact reenactment of a historical time, is not a replication of the truth. One example that comes to mind is Irena’s Vow, which is The nurse who was on the front lines during World War II serving and helping the Nazis. However much of this play is taken from history, it will never be a direct reference. As much as the actors can do a great job at portraying the behavior and mannerisms of that time is all dependent on how realistic the show was meant to be. All of this ties into how much the audience perceives the information in the moral of the story through their sense perception.
Now that we have outlined the lies in theater we can successfully conclude is there any truth at all. In order to make a successful show there needs to be a moral to it since that’s what the audience is going to take away from the experience. If there isn’t a lesson to be learned, then what’s the point? The truth aspects of theater go beyond the superficial elements such as characters, set, costumes, etc… and go deeper, using techniques and different strategies to translate this message from written text to performance arts. Different techniques could vary from musicals, shakespearean-style, spoken word, interpretive dances,etc…
The way this moral is presented entirely depends on the director and their creative decisions, but this does not mean that the message intended to be portrayed will be the same one the audience will understand. This entirely depends on the viewer’s personal opinions and ability to understand, in other words, it is subjective. For example, the musical Bare: a Pop Opera, is a musical about homosexuality and religion which takes place in a catholic high school. To many, this musical could be very offensive as it pokes fun at the concept and rules of christianity which impacts the moral or message the viewer takes away from this show. This can be applied to many plays and musicals. Theatre relates to Picasso’s quote because both the truths and the lies of theatre need to work together in order to create the groundwork for a play that will serve as some benefit for the viewer. In order to discover the truths (morals) of art, we must add an unrealistic aspect to it (lies).
