The Changing Concept of Reality in Art by Deborah Rosenthal Erwin Rosenthal

Author:Deborah Rosenthal, Erwin Rosenthal
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcade Publishing (Perseus)
Published: 2012-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Fig. 17. Giotto, St. John on the Island of Patmos. See p. 52

Fig. 18. Giotto, The Flight into Egypt. See pp. 25, 53

Fig. 19.

Fig. 19. Cézanne, Bathing Women. See p. 53

Fig. 20.

Fig. 20. Cézanne, “Mont Sainte-Victoire”. See p. 53

Fig. 21.

Fig. 21. Picasso, “Odysseus and the Sirens”. See pp. 53, 54

IV

THE CONDITION

OF MODERN ART

AND THOUGHT

I

The artist’s concern is reality in its deepest meaning—reality of which he is a part. He, like the philosopher, is always in search of reality. For it is not anything stable; it is oscillating, and it comprises not only the visible world but also includes feelings and emotions. It manifests itself as something static, and yet as motion and dynamic flow. Therefore artistic creation is open to innumerable solutions, depending on the artist’s discrimination as to what seems to him the most adequate expression for reality. How, under these circumstances, could it be possible to set up aesthetic rules ? Yet man has always sought to establish them. Greek classic art built up standards of corporeal harmony which seldom lost their validity in Western art completely. However, since the transformation of the outer world follows the inner picture which the artist’s mind creates, great artists can become great destroyers in overrunning long established aesthetic regulations. The artist himself, to be sure, does not stay completely alone with his new formulation of reality—he in turn may be indebted to phenomena for which we do not always find a logical explanation. There might be a general crisis of culture of which he becomes a characteristic exponent—in some cases he might be its prophet.

There is no doubt that modern art has its roots in just such a period of crisis. During the past few decades human thought, artistic expression, and aesthetic rules, have been in the process of change and ferment.

The concept of beauty was formerly associated with a harmonious setting and a wise equilibrium of subject matter. Such harmonious rendering gives rise to a sense of pleasure in the spectator. He will also agree to a certain simplification and stylization so long as it idealizes nature as he sees it; but decomposition and deformation he will not allow. This, however, is a one-sided aesthetic appreciation of art, which we may call neo-classic, and which by no means does justice to every kind of artistic creation.

Since art is not imitation, but really begins where imitation ends, the way is open not only to slight simplification and stylization of natural forms, but also to much stronger changes which emerge from the subjective experience of the artist. His starting point is nature, but his personal inspiration leads him to a highly imaginative picture, in which the forms are, so to speak, shaped from within. This approach to art, which prevails today but which has also been manifest in many ancient periods, leads to creations in which harmony does not play a dominant role. It would be erroneous, however, to criticize them for their so-called lack of beauty. In fact, neo-classic aesthetic criticism

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