What is the Purpose of Art?

Is art just pretentious? Do we actually need it?

I have an odd relation to art. I grew up on an volcanic island in the Oslo fjord in Norway. The pearl of the Oslo fjord they called it. It has beautiful beaches and nature which is quite unlike other places in Norway because the lords of the old manors scattered around the island imported trees from all over Europe and planted them there. Thus the forrest is quite different from what you find in the rest of Norway.