Vladimir Riabinin
There was a time when an artist was valued for the ability to depict the world accurately and beautifully. An artist was a kind of chronicler, conveying events in visual form, capturing images, freezing moments and creating aesthetic worlds. But today, when it is enough to open a smartphone camera or type a prompt into AI to get something “beautiful and realistic,” this skill is rapidly losing its uniqueness.
More and more often we hear a simple question: what place does an artist have today? Why do we need one? And what must an artist do to remain relevant?
Beauty is no longer art. Not long ago it was enough simply to “draw well.” An artist capable of capturing the finest nuances of light, form and anatomy automatically earned respect. But times have changed. Algorithms create hyper realistic images in seconds. Cameras have long surpassed the human eye in recording reality. The modern viewer is oversaturated with beauty. Social media delivers thousands of perfectly composed, color-graded and trend-ready images every day.
In this ocean of visual content, a paradox becomes clear: beauty no longer impresses. It stops being an event. This means that an artist who relies solely on “technique” and “harmony” finds it increasingly difficult to connect with the audience.
As I see it, there is a shift happening now from “craftsman” to “thinker.” Today, the artist is less a master of the brush and more a carrier and transmitter of ideas. The goal is not to please the eye but to provoke thought, spark a reaction, and pose a question. The artist becomes a conversation partner who speaks not with words but with forms, symbols and metaphors.
The visual language becomes similar to philosophical discourse. A painting is no longer a window into the world but a window into a concept. The artist’s work becomes a visual manifesto: an opinion, a doubt, a challenge, an idea. True art stops being “decoration” and becomes an intellectual field.
But who is actually interested in the artist’s inner world? People often say, “I am just expressing myself.” This is honest. Yet the real question is: who does that matter besides yourself? Every viewer has their own rich, complex and contradictory inner world. It is not lesser or poorer than the artist’s. People do not come to galleries to experience the author’s feelings. They come seeking discovery. They do not want to learn what the artist felt, they want to feel something of their own, in a new way.
This is why the artist today is valued not for personal drama but for the perspective they offer. Their strength lies in revealing the unusual in the ordinary and exposing the paradoxes of everyday life. They can make the viewer surprised by themselves, and this is the essence of the artistic act.
The twenty-first-century artist is no longer a “genius and master” but an intelligent interlocutor who speaks through color and visual allusion. A successful artwork does not need a signature. It asks questions on its own, creates doubt and provokes an inner response. It does not persuade but converses, and not always politely.
Such an artist becomes a guide. They translate abstract ideas into tangible images. They shape the cultural agenda and set the tone of the era, even if they work quietly in their studio. A painting can become a point of support for someone’s reconsideration, viewpoint, or choice.
And here is the key point: if an artwork does not contain an idea, a philosophy, a conflict, or a personal stance, everything falls apart. A visual image without thought quickly loses value. It lacks energy. It does not hook up a viewer or stay in their mind. It is looked at the way one glances at a pretty but empty postcard.
This is difficult. Yet despite the oversaturated visual space, the artist is needed today more than ever. But only on one condition: the artist must be able to say something of their own. Honestly. Deeply. Without clichés. Without repeating what has been said a million times before.
Today art is not about form but about meaning. Not about representation but about ideas. Not about craft but about thinking. And in this lies the artist’s most important purpose in our overloaded and rapidly changing world.