Freedom and truth in our times: phases and fads and more

There are times in history where everything seems to repeat. From the ashes of one era, rises a new beginning, a fresh start. Usually, there are visual signs. And, most usually, these signs first become apparent to the public at large in the visual or performing arts. Art, as a rough definition, is that form of expression that surpasses the everyday, that breaks new ground in visual display, cultural perception, or performance.

At the end of the 19th century, the world was poised at a new beginning, a new age. The Industrial Revolution had built up such a head of steam that inventions and possibilities were driving economies, politics and, not least, culture. Painting and performances already exhibited a quantum leap in changes of style, substance and vision. Monet, Debussy, Berlioz, Barrymore and the advent of movies with Eisenstadt and Méliès, as just a few examples, all trailblazed the beginning of the 20th century.

In their works were to be found the seeds of change, a search for peace, calm, passion and the newness of life and possibility. And, until the First World War, society was shaped in that direction by public acclaim and desire. However, some would say it was lulled into a sense of false security.

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The next great change came in the ’20s and 1930s with cubism, surrealism, jazz, swing, talking movies, and the Bauhaus movement, all lead by the likes of Picasso, Braque, Dali, Ernst, Miro, Breton, Gershwin, Cezanne, Bunuel, Disney, and le Corbusier. The world was changing, new perspectives were demanded just to understand a flickering image of a dancing mouse, follow the discordant notes of “An American in Paris,� understand the angular display of a Cezanne village or a Dali melting watch.

Buildings by le Corbusier appeared as human-centric beehives, ugly yet somehow proportional and elegant. The world was changing, unsettled, fresh certainly, and yet without a melody of calm. Art foreshadowed domestic life; there was no greater upheaval to come than World War II.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the world was, at first, shocked to see destiny being laid out in the form of rock ’n roll, pop art, avant-garde films, machines as art forms, and television. All these art forms seemed to be re-integrating art back into daily life; accessible, everyday, part of the fabric of who we are. Duchamps put a urinal on the wall, emphasizing the mundane could be seen as the next cultural expression. And indeed, it was.

From the seeming freshness of those two decades exploded the cross-cultural world of designer labels, advertising seen as art, music seen as commerce not heart song, literature as product, not free expression. Calvin Klein, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Dylan, character merchandizing (Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tom & Jerry), Johns, Segal, Sellers, Burton, Peck, Holden, and Hockney each locked the times into everyday experience, brands to be worn, shown, viewed, shared as assessable icons as part of everyday life.

 And then, as we approached this new century, artists’ voices began to ring a new discordant note, one at odds with that commercialism, devoid of links to any part of everyday experience or life; these artists were determined to expose the undercurrents of life and achieve freedom of thought, expression and possibility. Their motto could well be “the truth of who you are will set you free.â€� Hirst cut a shark in two and changed perspective of how we look at an instrument of death, perhaps more horrible exposed.

Baselitz exposed sexual depravity in much the same way, forcing viewers to confront their own primordial demons. Surprisingly, food joined this argument with the master-chef Ferran Adrià of elBulli restaurant in Spain. Two million people apply for a seat every year, but only 6,000 win that lottery. In a meal consisting of up to 37 courses, each one a culinary breaking of the rules, each one only a bite or two, diners are forced to confront preconceived notions, break with existing standards, uncover the basics of flavor appreciation and in so doing, regain primordial freedom of taste.

Meanwhile, Serra, Sherman, Horn, Internet designers, filmmakers and others have created irrealities that have forced the viewer to debate the commercial, discard the obvious, reveal the truth, and learn.  

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The path that current artists are marking for us is one that should not be overlooked when trying to predict the near future. Are these current art trends of freedom, freedom to discover who we really are, delusory? Will they, once again, lull us into a sense of false security blinding us to hatred, tyranny, and want, or will they, when coupled with the telecommunication tools of a modern age, spread truth quickly enough that conflicts and hatred can be overcome or, at worst, become minimalized?

As we enter a new age in America, with the world holding its breath, we have a chance to learn, observe and listen to the voice of art, a voice which has always presaged the events played out, later, in history.

Former Amenia Union resident Peter Riva now lives in New Mexico.