I was reading about the industrial revolution. In the same time period there was the commercial revolution. And the French revolution was moving into full swing.
In the 1960’s there were songs about revolutions. Sexual revolution, then the digital revolution, the communist revolution reversed.
In all, we just love revolutions.
We tend to characterize revolutions as pendulum swings. In order to move on to the next second of time in history, the pendulum swings to the opposite side.
Art has often proclaimed the next revolution. Art tends to be a precursor. Art can also be a reflection of society. The romantic period portrayed individualism, the heroic and the idealized – emotion ruled! The period of realism in art, falling hard upon the romantic period, looked and proclaimed – we are people of the ordinary life, with ordinary tastes and realistic social expectations.
We are in that transition period. A Trump presidency, while giving a billionaire the right to rule for the ordinary people, does carry the sense of encouraging tax breaks, seeking conservative morals and listening to the ordinary people.
How is the art world doing? Are you seeing a change in art that is being produced? Or will art follow society’s current revolution this time around?
Today’s neo artists seem torn between complete deconstructionism in paintings and sculptures and the return to more obviously structured forms, as in some fields of photography, geometric paintings, and also in “what sells” to people looking for “living room” art. I think the unsure direction of artists today reflects well the confusion of society as a whole, particularly in North America.