In art class this week I became exposed to the ideas of modernism and postmodernism art. I’m beginning to understand that the two are related, in the sense that postmodernism seems to have emerged from the movement of art that is called modernism. It emerged from it to counteract with it.
From the modernist perspective, we read a conversation from “Conversations before the End of Time” that Suzi Gablik had with Hilton Kramer. As a modernist he seems to believe in the artist as a lone figure, struggling against society. He believes that there is “a failure in the cultural world they (the artists) inhabit to reinforce the values that mean the most to them as aspiring artists” (p.111). To me, this means that he thinks that artists today are lazy and are only choosing the road to success and not the road to the previous values of art. The old values of art are becoming less and less attractive to today’s views on art. It just doesn’t make sense to make a piece or art that doesn’t serve a purpose. Kramer says “that art is at its best when it serves only itself and not some other purpose” (p.108). What the heck does that mean?! Art should always have a purpose, which is why humans create things, to serve a purpose! It should always serve a purpose because it is being created by someone, in other words, someone is making something special. They’re making something that is meaningful to them. It is bettering them as individuals and ultimately society. There was an interesting question that Gablik proposed: “should the state of the world in any way affect how we view art, and the role that it might play in our culture at this time” (p.115)? Kramer says that he hopes that it doesn’t because he says that we might lose art if we focus on fixing all of the problems in the world. I say, why can’t we have a compromise? Art is important in the world, it is definitely something to study and understand. It aids in development and the structure of society. On another note, Kramer believes that popular culture has played a “tremendously destructive role” on art. What I don’t get, is why? What if popular culture is art? Basically, his beliefs are very opposite mine. The two views do coincide though, when they discuss technological discoveries. Both sides believe in the innovation of technology and finding new ways to view life, like Darwin.
This is where Jack Ryan comes in. His span of work started as what seemed to be modernism, but has strayed into what could be defined as postmodernism. He started off believing in the “sublime” of nature, which is modernism. His later work shows that he is all about using a lot of different techniques of media to display multiple ways of viewing life. He wants his audience to leave his work with new questions in their heads about life and the way it works. He seems to be more interested in science and the Isaac Newton way of defining life. This leads more towards postmodernism and the views of our next reading with Satish Kumar.
Kumar believes in exactly that; the artist’s role is to create and to be the bridge for developing a sense of reverence. He believes that healing yourself will heal the world because once everyone works together and does their part, it will transcend to the universe. This is kind of like the idea of art being a personal experience. I kind of feel like Kramer doesn’t believe that art serves that purpose. I kind of feel like he just thinks that art is made for art and nothing else. That seems a little elitist to me. Art is a contribution to the world, like Kumar states. He wants to integrate life and its trends into the art world. He created a school where he is integrating the lifestyle of the home to greater inspire the students to innovative ways of thinking. He is instilling in them habits now that will continue with them for forever; like recycling and to not be wasteful, to be more spiritual and thankful for the world around them.
I certainly agree with Kumar more than Kramer. Art shouldn’t be so elite, it should be for everyone and the whole world should get to experience it and hopefully someday it will become integrated in everyday life.
No comments:
Post a Comment