QO: Modern Art Preface: Hi! This is going to be a reasonably long post about my thoughts on a specific subject. After its published, it will be available to read in the Notes section of this page, where there are several other long posts you can read if you like. This piece will probably contain a little or a lot of material you disagree with. Thats because the purpose of this page is not to post things you agree with, but to post thought-provoking things you (and sometimes even I) disagree with, in order to stimulate discussion and the changing of views, in the best spirit of rationality and open-mindedness. _______________________________ Theres a lot of hate for Modern art. Theres a pretty good chance you dont like Modern art, and there are a few reasons why that might be. You might think its ridiculous and stupid that a blank canvas can sell for millions of dollars. You might think art is only worthwhile if it has lots of time and effort put into it. Heck, you might just think its ugly. (To clarify: When I talk about modern art Im taking a huge including the Western worlds visual arts and architecture between the late 1800s and the present day. I dont know very much about Modernist literature. Sorry.) To condense the history of art down to a very, very poor summary: Humans like to make things. Its cool to leave things behind, to express ourselves permanently, whether its leaving marks on canvas or chipping away at a cave wall somewhere. Were creative, philosophical, expressive creatures. Its in our nature to make art. Over time, art evolved from cave paintings to frescoes, sculptures, paintings, prints, and other media. New techniques were discovered, from perspective and shading to oil paint and canvas. Art became more and more realistic - but the scenes depicted by these classical artists remained largely the same. The bulk of Western art prior to 1800 was religious in nature - commissioned by the wealthy Church to commemorate and praise God - but even more importantly, to convey the scenes and messages of the Bible to the vast majority of the population who couldnt read. Art was wildly successful at promoting religious interest and fervor among the peasant masses. The remainder of art during this period was commissioned by wealthy nobles, who wanted self-portraits or historical commemorations of their familys power, prestige and success. Its important to remember that during this time, art was a very rare thing. Training as a visual artist was rare, expensive, and often frowned upon as frivolous. Materials were insanely expensive, as certain pigments and brushes had to be shipped in from the other side of the world at a time when global transportation was incredibly slow, dangerous and expensive. So, for hundreds and hundreds of years, art consisted almost exclusively of paintings of Biblical scenes, with a few pictures of rich white guys and their mistresses, ships and horses thrown in. That was it. No deviation from the pursuit of absolute realism, crude as it was. Most artists followed the same patterns, the same rules, the same methods, with perhaps one minor technical advancement or discovery every couple of generations. So what changed? First, the Renaissance happened, an explosion of new ideas and thought spreading across Europe from Italy. It began with the rediscovery of a huge amount of Roman and Greek art, architecture, literature and philosophy. Concrete and other advances were rediscovered. This coincided with the birth of geniuses such as Leondardo da Vinciand Michelangelo, and the beginning of a small, subtle shift in thinking. Art remained primarily devoted to religion, but ideas of humanism started to become prevalent, and artists slowly became interested in the Earth as well as the Heavens. Second, the French Revolution occurred, one of the most significant events in human history. A period of radical upheaval that showed that the traditional models of hierarchy were not fixed, and could be overthrown. Regardless of the outcome of the Revolution, the fact that it occurred successfully at all changed the political landscape of Europe forever. The establishment of a declaration of Human Rights signified a shift in thinking towards self-determination, individuality and equality. Third, the Industrial Revolution happened. An explosion of scientific and technical knowledge coupled with new philosophies led to the creation of the middle classes and the rise of self-awareness. Materials to create art became much more widespread, as did literacy, and education. By this time, art had begun to depict themes other than religion, but it did so with the same adherence to realism as before. Every piece of art was intended to accurately hold a mirror up to nature. Slowly this began to change. First the Impressionists began to depict the world, not as it was, but as it was seen. These features included dots or visible strokes - while they still depicted the world as it appeared, they were an outrage to the conventional artists of the time. The movement snowballed, buoyed on by an unprecedented level of creative freedom. Art began to drift away from a rigid interpretation of reality, and towards an expression of sight, emotion, movement, thought and form. This movement was given a huge push by two events: World War One and the Russian Revolution. The enormous, industrial savagery of the First World War led to calls for new ways of thinking, new politics, new philosophy, and with this came a new art. The world, having barely caught its breath from all the shiny newness of parliamentary democracy and industrialism, was appalled by the enormous violence and the backlash was huge - a massive increase in sentiment for Anarchist and Socialist thought was just one symptom of the reaction, and art was another. The Russian Revolution, too, wasnt merely a political event, but a philosophical one - the triumph of the new order over the old, the working class over the rulers, and equality and fairness over oppression was as huge deal as the French Revolution over a century earlier. In the newly formed USSR, new and revolutionary forms of art dedicated to pushing back the old order bloomed. Movements like the Constructivists and the Suprematists realized that basically the entire history of art was one of rigid tradition dedicated to religious and ruling-class masters. The new socialist world would require a new art, and, in a movement as swift and revolutionary as the Bolsheviks themselves, traditional art was swept aside and new fundamental principles and movements were created in its place. From there, these ideas spread around Europe and America, leading to new and ever-more-radical movements in art and architecture. A core tenet of this philosophy was the advocacy of functional, industrial, secular, elegant, simple and expressive designs over the decorative, lavish, religiously iconographic and impractical structures of the past - backed up by a philosophy of equality, progress and rationality. Visual art continued to become more and more abstract, looking inward at human behaviour, thought and emotion as opposed to outwards at the natural and supernatural worlds. If you dont like it, thats okay, because there are literally centuries worth of non-modern traditional paintings and artworks for you to look at. Theres a largely-internet based movement known as Neoreactionary thought, which is essentially a rebellion against modern systems and schools of thought such as democracy, civil rights, feminism, and technology, and the advocacy of traditional systems such as racially segregated, pseudo-fascist Luddite nation-state monarchies. I theroize that the general sentiment against modern art is in the vein of that philosophy, coupled with the unfortunate reclamation of art by plutocrats and the nouveau riche. Modern art is more than just some nutjob pissing on a canvas and getting forty million dollars for it - its the artistic expression of the period of time in which the whole world changed forever. Its the rejection of the thousands of years when ignorance, extreme religious adherence and mass oppression were the norm, and when art was shackled to a few extremely limited purposes in service of these systems. Of course, dont take my word for it, go visit a gallery for shits sake, or have a look at one of the many excellent books and documentaries on the subject who could put this into words way better than me. Id highly highly highly recommend Robert Hughes series The Shock of the New, all of which are on YouTube (https://youtube/watch?v=J3ne7Udaetg). Thanks for reading! And as always, please leave your feedback or any thoughts below.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 00:14:16 +0000
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