Honours Workshop Diary 6 – General Art History Research

What reasons exist for the change in art? How did it come to the complete abstraction of the mid-20th century? 

In able to answer this question I had a closer look at general art history and the cultural events taking place during this time of change. Especially the turn of the 20th century seemed to be a major changing point for artists. Donald Kuspit speaks of the "Matrix of Sensations", as he calls it, the evolution of art how we know it. The journey takes place from the beginnings of Manet's colour patches to postmodern digital art grounded in codes and is summarized and explained nicely in his article. I will focus on the shift of the artistic mindset at the end of the 19th century. The whole article can be accessed here:  http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/kuspit/kuspit8-5-05.asp

This meant artists would once again search for purpose in art and evolve. The focus was all on the means of expression. And this is when and why different art movement formed. Soon there were many different theories and opinions and art became more diverse and possibly creative.

A Shift in the Artistic Mindset
Therefore the means of art up until the 19th century must be explained. In medieval Europe paintings are exclusively religious and the proportions of people are incorrect. The sense of depth is also largely missing. This is because the story of the image is the main goal and not duplicating reality. With the time of the Renaissance artists, philosophers and scientists start celebrating the natural phenomena, especially humanistic values. The main goal has therefore changed to translating 3D forms into realistic looking 2D images. This is possible by relating science and art like Leonardo da Vinci or Albrecht Dürer did. Just as Marshall McLuhan explains a few centuries later, “it is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” (McLuhan 1964). In this case it was the geometry that can be related to a painting. Technology changes art and the way people think.

Soon the qualities of oil were found and used as a painting tool. Because it dries so slowly, paintings can be changed and optimized for a long time. The main focus was still on the depiction of realism though. This first changed with the invention of photography in the 1800s. Photography then took over the main purpose of existing art up until then. It captures reality in a picture. Photography can just as well be art though, as it is merely a new expressive way to use one’s aesthetic vision.