Visual Arts 101: January 2011

“Future of Art”

Art struggles as we move ahead, it seems genius has been pronounced dead and mediocrity and irony congratulate one another on their empty existence. A trip to a modern museum of art leaves most of us scratching our heads in confusion. Art has lost its power over our collective imaginations because they can no longer speak for us in any meaningful way.
The entire edifice of new art has rotted itself so completely from the inside out that it has nearly crumbled to dust.
If we began with the period when art came into existence, it was something called beauty, a beauty which normal eyes can appreciate and admire. It showed human creativity and willingness to learn and explore new things. Let us take the example of Cave paintings, the freshness of the color used and style of painting showed their observation skill.
As we move ahead, the various period of European Art are:
Mannerism, Rococo, Baroque, Neo-Classicism, Pointillism, Surrealism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, Post-Expressionism, Abstract, Dadaism, Cubism etc
Each period was marked with a special characteristic and had a significance of its own….
But as we move ahead, we could see the art deterioting. The freshness and the beauty which was there in Mannerism, Baroque or a Rococo could not be seen in the later art periods. The later ones were not as realistic as we could see in the former ones. The former would depict scenes from the natural lifestyle. Pointillism and Fauvism on the other hand was moving away from the reality, Pointilism used bright colors but in a typical way of dots where those dots used to combine and form the base of color. Fauvism was again use of bright colors in an unrealistic way. For example the face would be painted with all bright colors. Surrealism had a unique way of presenting, its painting would contain daily item in an unrealistic way, which was difficult to understand.
And as these art period moved ahead, one can easily make out that it was that the meaning of beauty was changing or what was changing was becoming a mystery itself.
The earlier art period had perspective, a sense of coloring and could depict beauty through their paintings which the later period lacked.
Looking at the example of Duchamp’s Fountain clearly shows the influence of deconstructive philosophy, an ordinary white porcelain urinal, signed by Duchamp, put on display in 1917 as “serious artwork”.
Its display had caused a sensation and critics, the public, and other artists argued strenuously about the work, coming only to the conclusion that it was hugely controversial. It looked as if art made a joke to which no one is interested in listening also. But Duchamp was clearly onto something, for in 2004 five-hundred leaders in the art world voted it “the most influential work of modern art”, beating out Picasso's Guernica. How is it that a signed toilet is viewed with such reverence, and without a knowing wink? Is a signed toilet really art? If so, to whom, and for what reasons?
Being students of art, we can only comment and understand that there is absolutely no presence of shadanga...So on what basis should we judge them and absolutely no importance of subject.

"Fountain", Duchamp
Like just about everything else, art evolves and changes through time, building upon the success, insights, mistakes, and innovations of what came before
From the horse drawn carriage and wood fire, we progressed to space travel and nuclear fusion. Likewise, the arts progressed from realism to impressionism to dada to minimalism to post-modernism, and so on.
Now, here we stand in the 21st century. The progress of science and art has brought a marriage of marvels and horrors. The worst of the horrors grew from a cynical relativism. In science, it could be the physicist who thinks just because he can, he should design bombs that can kill millions of people. In art, it could be the artist who thinks just because he can, he should say a urinal in a gallery is art. What we value creates culture. Culture informs action. Action defines history. History determines the present. The values of the 20th century have led us to where we are now. The sarcastic relativism of dada will be widely embraced by the collectors, museums and publications that profit from the marketing of its philosophy. Its impact has been felt in all aspects of western culture. So much so that Beauty is commonly believed to have no place in art. From Wilde to Serra, it has been argued that Art has no use. Indeed the word 'art' has been rendered meaningless, as anything can be art, if so named. This is cynicism. This is nihilism. This is the art world in the first steps of the 21st century. Sarcasm, empty intellectualism, decay and the desperate need to shock have been in vogue for too long now. It is easier to desecrate something of Beauty than to create something of Beauty. Because Duchamp could not create it at the time, Duchamp sought to de-value Beauty. The resurrection of Beauty will be resisted at first. It will be called naive, superficial and simplistic. The pretense of the critics will be similar to that which Duchamp sought to obliterate with his ready-mades. Here, now, it is far more revolutionary to be sincere, romantic and idealistic. And while we reject the values derived from 20th century relativism, this does not make us neo-classicists. Classifications are meaningless to anyone seeking Beauty. There will be works lacking Beauty in the future just as they have started during Dadaism and others. Beauty can bridge any chasm and should be the goal of every culture. Beauty is the purpose of art, just as a building is the purpose of architecture. The utility of art is to inform us of Beauty, Beauty is a fundamental need of the healthy human condition, like oxygen. Dysfunction in the individual, the family, the society and the world is often due to a lack of Beauty. This is our destiny: to resurrect Beauty and to rally others to do the same.
Now standing in this world and giving sarcastic comments about others would just not be enough for any individual. If I as an individual think that something should be given a sense of beauty again, I should be the first one to take a step towards it, but then I realize that I alone won’t be able to exist without others support and help. Hence we have our Visual Art Class which shows us the meaning of harmony and helped us realize our own existence and to know what real beauty is…
Here is a little initiative taken by our teacher and mentor to show us, the youth what is beauty and how should we try to get it back which we have lost in our childhood.

If this kind of initiative is taken all over the world, we have hope that we can stop art from deterioting and the future of art is in safe hands.

ANKITA PODDAR
FSB-1 (61199)