My wife and I attended a lecture given at the UCSD humanities college on modern art and the crisis of meaning. It was great stuff.
I have a minor in art history and have always been fascinated with art and architecture. The lecture was about modern art went from the period 1790-1950. The image at the left is oath on the Tennis Court, Jacques Louis David
The discussion was broad ranging and was a whirlwind tour of the intellectual and political movements of Europe as seen through art. The lecture was sweeping and broad as the territory covered was huge and time limited. The movement from realism and political painting as seen above went through the major movements in art and artistic representation. The conversation ended with a discussion of post modernism and a film still by Dali.
I will give a rehash of the movements visited.
- Realism and the academy=illustrated above technically with political overtones of rationalism
- Political super realism=images become even more symbolic
- Impressionism=the shift and importance of the individuals perception in creating the subject
- Pointillism=(a "scientific" method invoking the new science of light with subjective objects)
- Emotionalism/fauvism=think Van Gogh and De Brucke, Gauguin where color and emotion ruled
- Dada=everything is pointless so lets have fun pure emotional whimsy
- Futurism= a love of speed and progress sweeping humanity up with it.
- Cubism=Picasso et. al. the realization of the post photographic movement and acknowledgment of primitive elements
- Bauhaus and minimalism=basically the abstract representation of platonic solids replacing the emotional ideals
- Surrealism= often uncomfortable representations of subjective and disjointed world.
I am going to be a sloppy poster and not give images or links for each of these, other than to say the lecture was great. My favorites period in history was 1850-1914 in Europe. Everything was possible and the future was getting better all the time. Many of the political and intellectual movements of the day are still here and profoundly present from the enlightenment project.
The progress of science and the belief of the individual suffered greatly in WWI. The clash of ideologies and the danger of blind rational faith of Fascism in WWII showed the danger of mixing pure futuristic idealism with the very real appreciation and fear of man's darker possibilities.
The naive and optimistic period of 1850-1914 was an amazing period in Europe. The art that came out of the period was equally amazing. Post WWI art was a fantastic and honest reappraisal of where the enlightenment project had gone awry as it splintered into many potential futures.
In my opinion true post modernism began the moment WWI started and the enlightenment project in its purity of science and sense of inevitable human progress faltered on the alter of human death and destruction in the trenches. WWI meant that man needed more than naive faith in a simple "enlightened" future. Humility and acknowledgment of the individual and their potential faults needed to be kept in perspective
The lecture briefly mentioned Freud and Nietzsche, both fun reads. The role of Nietzsche's will to power and the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy cannot be underestimated. The belief in the separation of the emotional and the rational was ever present.
The Freudian challenge of separating the self from a singular concept was as threatening as the separation of man from his unique position a la Darwin in 1858. The rise of the individual was met with equal challenges and new threats and opportunities. All this in the backdrop of ever quickening technical and economic rise. It was truly an amazing time to be alive. Freud was a great self promoter more than anything else. Nietzsche was a brilliant thinker who seemed to dislike just about anybody.
During the Q&A at the end of the lecture someone asked about post-modernism. Always a sticky subject. I think Andy Warhol got it right. In the same way that Nietzsche declared god dead, one could declare post Warhol that art is dead. At least that is my position. Art as it was known, the canvas or sculpture which used to be revered and pursued died in many ways.
People (most people) used to communicate and understand via imagery created with hints of an ideal or politically motivated image, allegory or sculpture. Everyone could understand David's canvas work literally. The images were meant to communicate with the masses. These are the memes that won in their day and survived as important into ours.
Today art is self indulgent and can be so suggestive that anyone can enjoy it, or not. Most ignore it. The artist sometimes makes a statement or not. Art isn't really dead, but has lost significant market share in the land of important communicative ideas.
The important images and messages that the masses relate to are commissioned by the good and great of our day.
The images and messages are simple and effective, we relate to them. The "new" art is shown during the superbowl and hits you 2-3,000 times a day via commercial imagery. It may not be the counter-reformation, but you take what you can get. A few elites, will run to galleries, and openings etc. but the role of "art" as it was known is long gone. the new commercial art has won in the marketplace of ideas and images.
So, "buy now!", "but wait! there's more." are the slogans and images that capture the imagination and memory. Perhaps they will appear more noble in 100 years time, much the way we revere "retro" culture of the 70's. This art probably will tell us more about ourselves than the work of Jeff Koons etc. Much like David, Manet, or Picasso convey the thoughts, fears and aspirations of earlier generations. Post modernism is close to dead. It was mostly consumed.
Post consumerism will be the digitalU movement. Yes I just made that up. DigitalU combining the digital universe and the self centered U. The landscapes and artist genres that provide meaning for people will increasingly be digital. The ever changing web is a chimera that offers reason, explanation, connection and meaning. Online places like World of Warcraft, Everquest, MySpace, and Secondlife are reflections of our interests and desires as manifested by individuals and their behaviours. Search Engines are the new oracles of delphi if not offering meaning then at least answers. So the new art form is digitalu. We are now inside the canvas, growing and shaping it. What comes next? If you ask Kurzweil, he will say the canvas will politely take over. So post digitalU comes...the singularity? :)
