I may have posted the following here some time back, but I cannot remember nor find it. So here follows some notes I compiled some months ago:
Origins of Art
It must be nature as well as nurture ie learning, which also depends on many factors eg where one grows up and learns in the local environment(s).
There is a large body of primary scientific literature in cognitive psychology, The development of these abilities in children has also been studied. Many of these researchers use controlled experiments. Tenets of this knowledge have been applied by many authors exploring artistic talent eg The Artful Eye by Gregory et al and the library of books written by Michael Freeman.
The scientific study of cognition and behaviour began with Charles Darwin, in his Expression of Emotions (1872) extending and developing the implications of his discoveries introduced in his earlier works, including Descent of Man (1971). And Darwin used images by pioneering photographers to depict his concepts and arguments. (The tenets of Darwin's genius are made plain by Michael Ghiselin in his Triumph of the Darwinian Method, Dover Edition.)
Our species' ability to identify patterns in nature is not only inherited but shared with many organisms, not only mammals. As to whether these cognitive traits are deeply ancestral or have evolved repeatedly is still being studied. Chimpanzees can see patterns but it is the ape genus Homo that evolved abstract-thought at least 1.5 million years ago with the ability to make complex 3 dimensional objects eg knapping stone tools. The ability to track animals and read signals in natural history is also part innate and part learnt. Humans can learn to track, even a city dweller, but A grade trackers are born, and also learn as children. This is well known from training counter insurgency operators in central Africa.
Whoever knapped the fine crafted lancelet blades of Middle Stone Age (MSA) cultures held a clear idea of what they planned as the final product. This ability appears in the central African archaeological record of approx maximum age of 300 thousand years - the Lupemban culture (~300 - 180 Kyr tenure). The first known images and abstract art appears in more recent MSA cultures: eg engraved artefacts and a drawing using ochre attributed to the Howieson's Poort culture of coastal S Africa (73 000 yr), and these early people were also hafting arrows the they used with potent plant poisons. The very earliest rock art appears significantly later, however~40000 yrs ago, with a hand painting in Spain dated at 64000yr. Whoever painted and/or etched these images had an aesthetic "eye", especially for rendering from experiential memory the nuances of the behaviour of the different species of animals depicted by the artists.
Gestalt
Identity of pattern underlies much of what human art has depicted over the past few thousand years. The fact is we all see the same patterns in an image/object. The rendition of patterns is a complicated subject - complicated by both abilities of the artists and also technologies of the culture. The discovery - also invention - of mediums has been integral to the evolution of art. This history has been retold many times (with differing success) in richly illustrated tomes.
It is interesting Art teachers have to teach most pupil's how to see perspective and learn the other "rules" of composition in drawing and painting. The talented art teachers appreciate this pedagogical process has to do with enhancing creativity and instilling confidence in the pupil. The key seems be in training innate cognitive skills, principally cognition of geometric patterns ie edges and spaces, and their relationships, and advancing to appreciate patterns of light and dark ie tones, and "seeing" the whole ensemble.
As eloquently explained by Betty Edwards (see her classic Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain), these elements of pattern recognition are key to understand how we draw, and can learn to draw; and it's hard to see why photography differs in the core processes
A clear thread in the history of artistic endeavour is the trend in increasingly sophisticated use of light to display patterns eg perspective, and applied applications eg to evoke/portray emotions. New mediums and pigments were important in this progression. And enter photography as a technology to paint with light, and capture the image in an instant....
Progress continues in the latest printing technology. This ability to paint with light is key to the success of modern photographers. Some use artificial light eg Jeff McNally.
There are others eg landscape photographers - who photograph making do with natural patterns of lighting in all their capriciousness. This ability can be learned, but some artists are naturals and "see" patterns and related opportunities almost instinctively. One certainly learns much of this in wildlife genres, but ability is also subject to how well one knows and also respect one's subjects.
For all genres, in any artist endeavour probably the defining skill is one's ability to "see" the whole ensemble - the Gestalt. Too often, the talented artist identifies the gestalt in a scene almost instantly. Ability in one's tools, chisel, pencil, brush or camera is obviously vital to how successfully one renders what one identifies.
