COSTAS
EVANGELATOS
THE ART IN
OUR TIMES
Due to the weight of the academic style and the “advanced ideas” of
romanticism which predominated in the art scene at the end of 19th
century, the aesthetic values set by the artists and the philosophers through
their works and texts as prototypes, were overthrown from their foundation. At
first, due to the pretext of demystification and refusal which was setting free
the creators from the aesthetic bonds of the great European past and then, due
to a new mythology which lasts up to the current days. Within approximately 110 years of modern art,
the new visions, the value and the expressive directness as well as the power
of this art, have not become part of the human awareness. They refer to the
incomprehensible, the unreasonable, sometimes the improvised, the ugly, the
ostensible mentality and coldness of the modern works. They refer to-and not
groundlessly- the financial socio-political and cultural situations which
prevent or distort the aesthetic education of the citizens, the consuming
society, resulting in the alienation of the by virtue receiver, that is the
human being of our century from the artistic works of his era. Disastrous
contradiction, since the main live art expresses the spirit, the ambitions and
the orientations of its era.
It is, however, accepted the fact that the artists accomplish great
things once they define the spirit of their era in their work prophetically or
by observing it.
How could, however, an artist create important works in an era when as a
social entity is indifferent to the contact and spiritual intimacy of the work
produced by the artist? I mean the artist who does not copy past patterns and
recipes but reforms through his creative imagination both the external and
internal world and works out with boldness and originality new expressive
methods.
So, in all this vague situation, which lasts so much and the possible
improvements and fellow traveling of the artist and the public occurred in some
periods but they did not yield in depth and duration, which is the modern
artist’s position and probably responsibility? In a lengthy historic course,
where the magic-conjuring-religious needs of the art gave its place to the
relation: state-church – order – lab with students and assistants-defined
topic-work, the entrance of 20th century changed radically the
developing course of these relations.
The promoter of the change was based on the independence lived by the
modern artists. Yet, this independence of the artist, deriving from the traditional
structures and rules of creation, lead through the reversely corresponding
procedures to a greater alienation of the artist. Alone and closed in his
personal shell, he composes works addressed mainly to himself. Yet, even when
he participates actively in forms of art that need the participation of other
artists or/and the public, such as the conjectural performance, environment and so on, he dismisses with great
difficulty the characterization of the outcast. He acts, in reality, between a
few and some, a personal public which has very little relation with the wider
public which, in the best situation, is surprised or smiles ironically…
Perhaps, it is more important that the artist would experience his
personality in a system oppressive by
obvious institutions. The independence lead him to a procedure of inspiration
and production of works invented by himself, but unfortunately it did not
succeed in relieving him from the intermediaries (art merchants, gallerists,
manager, financiers, bureaucrats) not even
from the leaders of tendencies and aesthetic ideas who, nowadays, are
not creators any more, but the art critics, modern theorists and “enlightened“
gallerists who are the celebrities in art world today.
Thus, the artist, who defends his independence, his free expression, his
adamant course for the creation of
important art, does not even have fields of choice. Alone he decides the
production of the works and many times he stores them since no one ordered
them, almost no one sees them, no one of the promoters of the works of art is interested in them.
There exist so many who are willing to satisfy everything ordained by the
fashion and the marketing.
Logically, this independence should promote the creation of paintings
too, according to the structural and aesthetic principles of the painting.
However, this independence, apart from a few exemptions, lead us, through
irreversibly proportional processes, to
the annihilation of the painting and
proportionally, the annihilation of the sculpture, engraving and other
forms of expression.
According to the philosopher Martin Heidegger, within the artistic
work, the truth, which is the revelation
of the beings in their existence, is activated.
The creative appearance of a world is the more basic achieved by the
artistic work.
Therefore, the conjectural reduction in the Symbol of the artistic
work’s essence occurs within the
indefinite “incident” of the Truth. Friedrich Nietzsche, however, attributes
the birth of the artistic work to the conflict of the Apollonian element with
the element of Dionysus and according to Albrecht Durer, the Art is hidden in
the nature and it needs to be extracted by the artist. Everyone, in general,
agree that the basic element for the reduction in the art’s essence is the Truth.
The Truth as an agreement of knowledge with the objects leads to the creation,
that is the work of art. We can say that the art is an uninterrupted creation
and an event of truth.
The work of art, however, deriving from the metaphysical tendency of the human being for
the eternity, activates in his inner shelf the truth and it reveals it
symbolically through the “meaning of beauty” which is represented by the
conjectural creation.
Another question is, which would be the benefit from an analytical approach of this procedure since the
work-result is its objective, as a means of value, unique and independent from
the presence of its artist.
Our era has the advantage of sealing with its aesthetic differentiation
and its multiplicity, the expression of each kind.
The artistic entity of the conjectural creator but also each artist, has
mainly been covered by the plenitude of pretence, imitation and interest that
the international as well as the national networks of the art’s projection
have, based on the marketing’s demands and not on the search of the real
expression, represented by the original artistic creation.
We live in times where the great art has been withdrawn from the human
being and its substance is immobilized to the past. The codes of approach have
been erased and the required sensibility
and spirituality of the receivers are sliding and they are facing the
vulgarity, the easiness and the aesthetic confusion. Hegel was the first great
thinker who expressed the view that the art is mortal and its destiny is to
die. Perhaps his pessimistic view would be the fruit of his idealistic
perception; however, it seems that at the end of 20th century, it
came saturated and boring, in an anti-aesthetic situation, thus delivering
mainly the multiple expression of this decade of every kind to the power of the
technique and technology.
Yet, could all these thoughts be inconsiderate ascertainments and by
accepting the future optimistically we could see elements of “renaissance” and
vitality? Could the defining values exist even under expulsion? Those who still
ask questions and defend themselves against the fashion, the consumerism and
the ideological desert of the present, which tends to the leveling of the
criteria and the pathetic acceptance of the aesthetic effects, they may know
the answers and perceive the possible solutions.
We confirm that, in the practical level, not only the artist’s position
has no relation with the purported independence; but that his accession in non
artistic circuits and bodies (due to the need and the non spiritual factors
dominating the market) lead the conjectural expression to
possible extinction. We could assimilate the modern artist as a rope-walker
who attempts the strangest and the most dangerous tricks. The edges of his rope
are invisible, but he progresses by leaps and bounds and fluctuations. If it
happens to get crushed (and this happens in occasions) on the land, almost no
one regrets him… It is possible that these confirmations seem excessive. Today,
the conjectural expositions in museums and galleries are full of people. Great
conjectural organizations in all the developed financial centers spread the
modern art. Educational foundations, companies and individuals invest on the
works of the modern production. Quite a few artists enjoy prosperity and they
compete the wealthy. The Mass Media of every kind do a perfect job…Yet, in
reality, the modern human being is very
little moved by the art of his era, or at least by the art imposed on him by
the Mass Media and the merchants, as the art of his era. The confusion and
assimilation cover a great spectrum of the searches of the past century and
despite the greater spreading of the works of art, through the engraving and
other reproductive methods and the approach of the daily human being using the
Pop Art, the art even in the first decade of the 21th century, is not lived as
a human necessity. It is almost always remaining at the level of decoration or
investment on something incomprehensible, but some “ connoisseurs’ give a lot
of value.
Is there, therefore, an outlet, regarding all these?
I believe that the possible outlets and answers would come only by the
real artists themselves who insist on expressing their soul despite all the
adversities.
If the artist’s independence lasted as long as the artists were against the set belief of the tradition, the
artist’s preservation into the future
would be achieved only if the artists
comes to realize that his alienation from the public and the human soul means
acceptance of the “ useless’ of the art and its replacement, suggested by the
leading figures of the existed and manipulated obscurantism, with the
technological founding and effects which
already prevail.
It is confirmed that people of the contemporary society search their
identity in the universal village of globalization which promises them comfort
and communication. The stock exchange materialistic wealth and the
technological superpower are galloping with systematic measures of imposition.
The real artist through his work is supposed to resist against the
estrangement, the leveling and the insensibility as well as living his personal
revolution which, I hope, can still awake the audience.
Costas Evangelatos, artist, poet, performer, art theorist
Selected bibliography
Lucie-Smith,Edward:Movements
in art since 1945,World of Art,Thames and
Hudson,1992
Bowness,Alan:Modern European
Art,World of Art,Thames and Hudson
Heidegger,Martin:Der Ursprung des
Kunstwerkes,Holzwege,Frankfurt a.M.1950
Francastel,Pierre:Peinture Et
Societe-Naissance Et Destruction D
Un Espace Plastique De La Renaissance Au Cubisme,Ed.Denoel,1977
Gombrich,Ernst:Τέχνη
και ψευδαίσθηση,Εκδ.Νεφέλη,Αθήνα,1995
Barthes,Roland:The Death Of The
Author,Hill and Wang ,New York
Sensation:Young British
Artists from the Saatchi Collection,London :Thames
and Hudson
Kultermann,Udo:Leben und
Kunst,Verlag Ernst Wasmuth Tubingen,1970
Read,Herbert:The Philosophy of
Modern Art,Fawcett World Library,New
York
Scharf,Aaron:Art and
Photography,Pelican Books,1979
Electronic Art,Moning
Image,Ed.Joan Miro Foundation,Barcelona
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