It was the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, b. 535 BC. d. 475 BC, who once said "Everything changes and nothing stands still" quote from Plato, b. 427 BC d. 347 BC in the dialogues of 'Cratylus'. Men's minds shall always resemble a state of flux. One could not expect the humanity of our lives to come to complete and utter standstill. In all aspects of life experiences will change as the progress of human knowledge marches on inexorably.
It is hard to imagine that it was a mere three hundred years ago when Europe groped around for a new philosophical grounding to balance the old ways of culture and religious tradition with the new creed of rational inquiry and reasoning. Mankind would always portray it's contemporary ethos through the medium of the present. Thus from Medieval tapestry to Renaissance canvas the story of mankind would evolve with a philosophy to imitate life through the medium of art. Great painters of such order and symmetry of meaning graced many stately homes in the 18th century across Europe. With the likes of the great portrait painters like Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney the world of art was orderly and intelligible. But how the world of art came to stand on it's own head with a revolution of subject matter in such a short space of time; for men indeed through social, philosophical and eventual political revolution began to see the chaos of the mind as the integral facet of his Romantic relationship with nature around him. So short was the period of change where art begot it's own life and rendered its imitative ability to dysfunction. Yet, sweeping changes were inevitable. Prior to the industrial Revolution of the 19th Century, European society as a whole and it's art professed rigid rules of delineation as ancient Roman and Greek Classical traditions would inspire a Neo-Classical influence that would dominate a Europe grasping for a solid foundation to rest upon after years of European armed conflict and religious struggle. The British architect Inigo Jones b. 1573 - d. 1652 would translate the Roman edicts of Marcus Vitruvius c. b.70 BC. 15 BC, to inspire a Neo-Classical movement in architecture with Roman symmetry, elegance and poise, such as in the buildings of Banqueting House, Whitehall and Wilton House, Wiltshere, UK. In the field of science Sir Isaac Newton b. 1642 d. 1726 compiled the new order of the universe with his publication of the 'Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica' 1687. A structured order of society was the foundation for art as expressed in familiar landscape and figure themes such as the painting of 'Mr and Mrs Andrews' by Thomas Gainsborough in 1750.
In the eyes of the European Literati in the 18th Century art was the finest imitation of life in the true Aristotelian sense. Yet others decried the stifling oppression of order without the flexibility of men's minds to grow as a tree would stretch it's branches to the sky. Jean-Jacques Rousseau b. 1712 d. 1778 would cry that "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are." With the publication of the 'Du contrat social' 1762 eventually L'Ancien Régime was swept aside in a bloody French Revolution of 1789 and Europe itself was torn apart with war and changes as Napoleon Bonaparte marched all over to announce the political ending of the Divine Right's of Kings.
Freedom of spirit everywhere at the turn of the 19th Century saw the liberation of men's minds and the arrival of a new breed of artist like JMW Turner b.1775 d.1851 and Eugene Delacroix b. 1798 - 1863. The Romantic movement became art's own revolution against the stodgy Period paintings of seemly order and tidiness. The great English painter JMW Turner transformed the genre of landscape with the transplant of the human spirit to the very canvas itself as if to re-enact Mary Shelley's ghastly but inevitable pondering over the origins of life and man's own role as a pro-creator in her novel Frankenstein published in 1818. Man was no longer part of the environment but the architect of the environment and art took upon itself the breath of life on canvass as if through a divine act of creation to give the canvas it's very own soul. Mankind was no longer the hopeless, hapless and fatalistic creation. Mankind would struggle against the forces of nature; and whether he succumbs or thrives, he would do so of his own choosing in an order of universe that he himself chooses to impose at his own volition from the sentiments of his own heart.
From the turn of the 19th Century to 1870's Europe saw great economic success as the Industrial revolution harnessed the positive aspects of it's own ingenuity to build machines and implement it's own story of productivity and wealth. From the English philosopher Adam Smith and his ground-breaking book 'The Wealth of Nations', published in 1776, came the philosophical guideline of economy and the inspiration for the European nations to embark upon a process of Industrialization that would rapidly empower the middle classes with a newly found mercantile wealth. The industrial Revolution inevitably paved the way for the birth of a new school of artists, mostly French, who came to be known collectively as the Impressionists with a new emphasis upon changes in subject and technique to enforce reality on an art against the final vestiges of the idealism of the 18th century.
The Impressionist movement in the late 19th century arose in Paris with a growing rebellion of painting subject matter and style and use of color right down even to the use of brush stroke to reinvigorate spontaneity against the rigid, tedious monotony of 18th century portraits and landscapes. Brought to fame by a series of exhibitions in the 1870's a new radical group of artists with the likes of Degas, Manet, Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh signaled a break in European painting style to herald the birth of the modern era in art. According to the new group of artists, in essence art was essentially a snapshot in time of a sensation come and gone in a fleeting moment; art was no longer the laborious craft of detail taking the concept of realism beyond and into the levels of absurdity. Instead, the new artistic interpretation was vibrant, full of color and full of sensation very much like the optical distortions perceived when squinting the eyes at the mid-day sun. In this sense Impressionist paintings of landscapes, street scenes and groups of people began to portray the true humanity captured for a single second within a blur of delightful color; not the stolid unbalanced poise of 18th century dictum and decorum that rendered landscapes and figures into allegorical irrelevance to the modern era.
In the painting of Monet above, Springtime 1872, notice how the beautiful combination of brush stroke and color enforces a shimmering effect of light upon subject matter. The effect of light and shadow almost creates the concept of 3D and volume of space which became a ground breaking technique of the Impressionists that brings a refreshing life to the form of art.
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| Bust of Heraclitus - Victoria and Albert Museum, UK |
It is hard to imagine that it was a mere three hundred years ago when Europe groped around for a new philosophical grounding to balance the old ways of culture and religious tradition with the new creed of rational inquiry and reasoning. Mankind would always portray it's contemporary ethos through the medium of the present. Thus from Medieval tapestry to Renaissance canvas the story of mankind would evolve with a philosophy to imitate life through the medium of art. Great painters of such order and symmetry of meaning graced many stately homes in the 18th century across Europe. With the likes of the great portrait painters like Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney the world of art was orderly and intelligible. But how the world of art came to stand on it's own head with a revolution of subject matter in such a short space of time; for men indeed through social, philosophical and eventual political revolution began to see the chaos of the mind as the integral facet of his Romantic relationship with nature around him. So short was the period of change where art begot it's own life and rendered its imitative ability to dysfunction. Yet, sweeping changes were inevitable. Prior to the industrial Revolution of the 19th Century, European society as a whole and it's art professed rigid rules of delineation as ancient Roman and Greek Classical traditions would inspire a Neo-Classical influence that would dominate a Europe grasping for a solid foundation to rest upon after years of European armed conflict and religious struggle. The British architect Inigo Jones b. 1573 - d. 1652 would translate the Roman edicts of Marcus Vitruvius c. b.70 BC. 15 BC, to inspire a Neo-Classical movement in architecture with Roman symmetry, elegance and poise, such as in the buildings of Banqueting House, Whitehall and Wilton House, Wiltshere, UK. In the field of science Sir Isaac Newton b. 1642 d. 1726 compiled the new order of the universe with his publication of the 'Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica' 1687. A structured order of society was the foundation for art as expressed in familiar landscape and figure themes such as the painting of 'Mr and Mrs Andrews' by Thomas Gainsborough in 1750.
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| Mr and Mrs Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough in 1750 |
In the eyes of the European Literati in the 18th Century art was the finest imitation of life in the true Aristotelian sense. Yet others decried the stifling oppression of order without the flexibility of men's minds to grow as a tree would stretch it's branches to the sky. Jean-Jacques Rousseau b. 1712 d. 1778 would cry that "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are." With the publication of the 'Du contrat social' 1762 eventually L'Ancien Régime was swept aside in a bloody French Revolution of 1789 and Europe itself was torn apart with war and changes as Napoleon Bonaparte marched all over to announce the political ending of the Divine Right's of Kings.
Freedom of spirit everywhere at the turn of the 19th Century saw the liberation of men's minds and the arrival of a new breed of artist like JMW Turner b.1775 d.1851 and Eugene Delacroix b. 1798 - 1863. The Romantic movement became art's own revolution against the stodgy Period paintings of seemly order and tidiness. The great English painter JMW Turner transformed the genre of landscape with the transplant of the human spirit to the very canvas itself as if to re-enact Mary Shelley's ghastly but inevitable pondering over the origins of life and man's own role as a pro-creator in her novel Frankenstein published in 1818. Man was no longer part of the environment but the architect of the environment and art took upon itself the breath of life on canvass as if through a divine act of creation to give the canvas it's very own soul. Mankind was no longer the hopeless, hapless and fatalistic creation. Mankind would struggle against the forces of nature; and whether he succumbs or thrives, he would do so of his own choosing in an order of universe that he himself chooses to impose at his own volition from the sentiments of his own heart.
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| Slaveship by JMW Turner 1840 |
From the turn of the 19th Century to 1870's Europe saw great economic success as the Industrial revolution harnessed the positive aspects of it's own ingenuity to build machines and implement it's own story of productivity and wealth. From the English philosopher Adam Smith and his ground-breaking book 'The Wealth of Nations', published in 1776, came the philosophical guideline of economy and the inspiration for the European nations to embark upon a process of Industrialization that would rapidly empower the middle classes with a newly found mercantile wealth. The industrial Revolution inevitably paved the way for the birth of a new school of artists, mostly French, who came to be known collectively as the Impressionists with a new emphasis upon changes in subject and technique to enforce reality on an art against the final vestiges of the idealism of the 18th century.
The Impressionist movement in the late 19th century arose in Paris with a growing rebellion of painting subject matter and style and use of color right down even to the use of brush stroke to reinvigorate spontaneity against the rigid, tedious monotony of 18th century portraits and landscapes. Brought to fame by a series of exhibitions in the 1870's a new radical group of artists with the likes of Degas, Manet, Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh signaled a break in European painting style to herald the birth of the modern era in art. According to the new group of artists, in essence art was essentially a snapshot in time of a sensation come and gone in a fleeting moment; art was no longer the laborious craft of detail taking the concept of realism beyond and into the levels of absurdity. Instead, the new artistic interpretation was vibrant, full of color and full of sensation very much like the optical distortions perceived when squinting the eyes at the mid-day sun. In this sense Impressionist paintings of landscapes, street scenes and groups of people began to portray the true humanity captured for a single second within a blur of delightful color; not the stolid unbalanced poise of 18th century dictum and decorum that rendered landscapes and figures into allegorical irrelevance to the modern era.
 |
| Springtime by Claude Monet 1872 |
In the painting of Monet above, Springtime 1872, notice how the beautiful combination of brush stroke and color enforces a shimmering effect of light upon subject matter. The effect of light and shadow almost creates the concept of 3D and volume of space which became a ground breaking technique of the Impressionists that brings a refreshing life to the form of art.
The turn of the 20th century was dark and foreboding. In the 19th century the Industrial Revolution had mechanized economies and created huge amounts of wealth. Inevitably the new wealth translated into military power and as the European nations clambered to secure commodity resources across the globe,global conflict would come to bear on a scale never witnessed before. In the world of art the gaiety of Impressionism was fast receding as men's minds turned to darker thoughts that urban poverty would reveal as the Industrial Revolution began to show it's darker and uglier side with the misery of the working poor. Spanish painter Pablo Picasso b. 1881 d. 1973. portrayed the depression of man in his 'Blue Period' through 1901 to 1904 as he studied the melancholy of those who became lost in this new world insensitive to the needs of man.
To this new age of industrial poverty some artist's began to recoil inward and introspectively; questioning those around them but more importantly questioning their very selves and the entire reason for being with elevated spiritual searching for the meaning of human life. As the first French Impressionists and their artistic revolution in the 1870's threw out the stolid works of former masters, the liberation of the artist's mind at the turn of the 20th century began to dwell upon more changes to reflect the growing disparity of rich and poor and new issues in society that could become reflected through the eyes of the artist. Sudden changes once again swept through Europe towards another sensational break with the emergence of Cubism as an artistic movement and once again with it's heart set in fair Paris. Led by the influential Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and other painters like the French, Georges Braque, the hold on men's minds suddenly began to unravel as artists began to assess the critique of the subconscious and it's role in the creativity of the artist. Agasp at the unveiling of the ground breaking cubist painting 'Nude Descending a Staircase No 2.' by the French artist Marcel Duchamp in 1912 the public at large realized that there were no more bars to where the mind could explore the form of art at all it's levels of spirituality and dismantle the very core of humanity to a series of essential building blocks.
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| la Vie by Pablo Picasso 1903 |
To this new age of industrial poverty some artist's began to recoil inward and introspectively; questioning those around them but more importantly questioning their very selves and the entire reason for being with elevated spiritual searching for the meaning of human life. As the first French Impressionists and their artistic revolution in the 1870's threw out the stolid works of former masters, the liberation of the artist's mind at the turn of the 20th century began to dwell upon more changes to reflect the growing disparity of rich and poor and new issues in society that could become reflected through the eyes of the artist. Sudden changes once again swept through Europe towards another sensational break with the emergence of Cubism as an artistic movement and once again with it's heart set in fair Paris. Led by the influential Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and other painters like the French, Georges Braque, the hold on men's minds suddenly began to unravel as artists began to assess the critique of the subconscious and it's role in the creativity of the artist. Agasp at the unveiling of the ground breaking cubist painting 'Nude Descending a Staircase No 2.' by the French artist Marcel Duchamp in 1912 the public at large realized that there were no more bars to where the mind could explore the form of art at all it's levels of spirituality and dismantle the very core of humanity to a series of essential building blocks.
 |
| Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 Marcel Duchamp 1912 |
The 1920's to 1930's in Europe saw the bankruptcy of Germany in the aftermath of WWI and the rise of Fascist an Communist forces at loggerheads with contrasting ideologies. Amidst the growing sense of social chaos the revolution of 'cubism' in art would now fork into 2 different directions with some artists decrying the loss of the human identity and other artists seeking to explore and lay bare the inner workings of the human persona.
Alberto Giacometti, b. 1901 d. 1966, the Swiss Italian artist began to despair of modern Europe and the destruction that war had brought upon it's lands. With increasing tension his art transformed itself from the sense to the senseless, the defined form to the formless as yet another Word at War decimated modern Europe and increased his own Existentialist perception that the journey of mankind was to result in the inevitable declassification and deconstruction of the human persona; a bewildering and dismaying thought process portrayed in the a 5ft 10 bronze cast sculpture 'Walking Man' of 1947 with the aftermath of WWII.
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| Walking Man by Alberto Giacometti 1947 |
With contemporary art after WWII expressing the eventual loss of humanity through Giacometti and the world of Existentialists, by contrast, the peculiar and flamboyant Spanish artist named Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí, b. 1904 d. 1989 sought to expand upon the panoply of human emotion rather than to diminish it's form in art. Dalí sought to dissect the human personality and spread out every working component of emotion to lay it bare for examination on canvas within an art movement that came to be known as Surrealism. Born to a middle-class family at the turn of the century Dalí became exposed to the political turmoils of European nations at an early impressionable age but did not shrink back into denial at it's revulsion; rather he sought to expose it's emotions for the viewer to decide upon the virtue or absence of humanity. With World War I, the bankruptcy of Germany and the rise of communism in Europe and Spain, Dalí began to draw upon attentive social experiences and reflect upon those experiences to start the Surrealism content of his own inner mind.
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| Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape by Salvador Dalí 1934 |
'Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape' 1934 showed the first seeds of the genius of Surrealism. This piece is rumored to have been painted in one sitting without
interruption and portrays the artist's idol: the artist Jan Vermeer with a child thought to represent Dali set within Surrealistic plain of brilliant
sky, blinding sands and a shady dwelling by cypress trees.
Once again ,
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| Printemps Necrophilique by Salvador Dalí1936 |
'Printemps necrophilique' painted in 1936 portrays the mind of the painter beleaguered by a Spain that was roiling in political turmoil and civil war. Dali sought to uniquely portray the consciousness
of illusion and pin his emotions to the canvas. Here a seated man in languid poise stares into the sheer emptiness of the bare sands as a
flower headed woman balances the insanity of the unbalanced mind and offers a lifeline of hope to grasp the traditions of the agricultural lands with
an olive tree distinguishing and separating reality from the mentally disturbing clouds of confusion.
In conclusion the story of the journey of art through the last 300 years has bore testimony to the conflict that man faces within his mind with his social needs changing over time against a structural order that stubbornly refuses to modify let alone change over time. The Romanticists rebelled over the suffocating order of period Neo-Classicism; the Impressionists struck out against the sensationalism of the Romanticists; the Cubists reacted to the brilliance of the Impressionists and eventually modern art forked out like branches on a tree of expression to give birth to Existentialism, surrealism and eventually contemporary art. No two pairs of eyes will ever hold the same vision and ever shall the battle reign over the concept of life, art and imitation; but above all, one concept can never change; and that is the concept of Time and that in such time all artists will eventually bear different ideas on canvas or stone or whichever medium they choose to express their art.
"Everything changes and nothing stands still" or as the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates also added: "The unexamined life is not worth living" comment drawn from Plato's 'Apology'.
Discussions in fine art by Pieter Bergli
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