The Third Of May (1808), Francisco Goya
Artists are naturally drawn to uncertainty, even chaos, within which they find underlying patterns or a glimpse into primal realities that are otherwise inaccessible through the precise methodology of science or verbal logic. The turning points in the history of art have always come at times of great turmoil or axial shifts.
The first major turning point was the European Renaissance, when scientific and philosophical enquiry of the Arab world was transferred to medieval Europe and challenged religious control of knowledge. Artists investigated anatomy, perspective and the nature of light and scientific achievements. The artist was no longer an artisan working for profit but a respected personality with knowledge of cultural theory. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo epitomised this role. Art academies were formed; professorships and curricula were also established at that time.
Romanticism emerged from disenchantment with the Industrial Revolution and was inspired by an age of political revolutions. Academies were rejected for destroying the creative spirit. Art must reflect and serve society, not only church and state it was argued. Art was seen as action, subjective, spiritual and political, and the artist was regarded as a heroic personality. This developed into the idea of art as Avant Garde, with the prophetic ability to look into the future. As the poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote, “Poetry will not lend its rhythm to action: it will precede it.”
World War I disrupted faith in the cornerstone political and moral values of society, and the artists responded with Dada Art and Cubism — the first one nihilistic and the second one urging the viewer to see the world in new ways.
Art in a post-industrial world saw the emergence of the art professional, who is part of a capitalist economy with institutional endorsement and star value, although with a smaller audience.
Today, the world is once again in a state of flux — without global leadership, with governments turning inwards, multiple wars, displacement of huge numbers of affectees, an urgency to address climate change, 42 percent of the world population under the age of 25 with a majority in poor countries or conflict zones and the next level in digital technology upon us.
Digital technology and climate change have become the new subjects and technologies for producing art. Digital technology — notwithstanding its implications for loss of privacy and replacement of human production with robotics and artificial intelligence — has allowed the cultural outsider to have a voice. As Mario Perniola explains in his paper “Cultural Turning Points in Art: Art between Parasitism and Admiration”, the strategy of innovation, rupture and transgression, aligned with the possibilities offered by new media, has replaced tradition, the canon and the institution.