Enlightenment was a scientific movement that helped shape art. The separation of religious authorities from the power they held, helped creativity and freedom blossom. This helped many switch from Rococo styled art to Neoclassicism.
Neoclassical art from the enlightenment era can be connected to modern day culture. Political issues are currently everywhere and they just so happen to be one of the themes of enlightenment. For this assignment I chose to use a painting from the enlightenment era to compare to modern day culture.
The image below is a painting called Oath of the Horatii and was created by Jacques-Louis David in 1784.“Here, the three Horatii brothers are swearing an oath on their swords which their father presents to them to fight until they die for their country”. During my research for the previous assignment I found out that enlightenment had a political and religious theme, it also showed that the churches had all of the power. This painting ties into the political theme and shows that these brothers will fight to the death for their country.
In relation to modern day culture, look at the churches as the police, the Horatii brothers as protesters, and their country as the BLM movement. These two topics go hand and hand together even though they are about completely different circumstances. Enlightenment and modern day culture both share a toxic trait, who is left in charge and what they chose to do with their power. Although it’s been hundreds of years since the beginning of the enlightenment movement we still face similar problems when it comes to who has the power.
Image Source: Lumen
The era of Romanticism occurred after the Enlightenment movement. The main idea of this era was to display art in a more personal way. Romanticism allowed artists to break the rules when it came to their artwork and show individuality.
Romanticism stemmed and flourished from the creativity and freedom that artists had. Unlike Enlightenment, Romanticism allowed artists to use their own creativity in whatever ways they wanted. This produced a wide variety of outcomes that vary from creative, unknown, romantic, and even gore.
The image below is called Wanderer above the Sea of Fog and was created by Caspar David. All the painting shows is a man standing on rocks staring out into an abyss covered in fog, but the meaning is much deeper than that. “It portrays an emotional state: ideas of infinity and roaming, of the imperfection of the soul and of its emotions.” This picture describes the Romanticism movement perfectly due to the fact that art was raw and emotions were just starting to be discovered in artwork.
In relation to modern day culture both the painting and culture relate to uncertainty. Right now the world is facing tons of uncertainties, the upcoming election, covid, and Black Lives Matter movements are the top three. The state of infinity and roaming ties these topics together because currently the world is in a very vague state. A vague state is a form of uncertainty which means there isn't necessarily an end in sight.
Romanticism has many different styles of artwork, but for the most part not all of them include certainty and have a happy ending. This currently directly relates to modern day culture even though the movement was over a hundred years ago.
Image Source: Explore
Modernism was yet another artistic movement that took place after Enlightenment and Romanticism eras. Modernism allowed artists to explore how they wanted to create art by using the buildings of old beliefs.
Modernism gave artists more freedom when it came to their art then any other movement that came before. Unlike Enlightenment and Romanticism artists had free reign of what they wanted to create and what style they wanted to use. The exploration of the arts was highly encouraged, in the literature aspect novelists started to collage styles which exceeded expectations.
The painting below is called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat. In the painting the artist uses pointillism which is a design where you paint by only using tiny dots. The painting shows many people on a lawn enjoying the day, most if not all of the people look like they belong to a higher class.
Relating this piece of art to modern day cultural movement may be harder than the other topics that we have covered, but covid is a strong relation. The picture represents what the world looked like before covid hit. People out in a park on a weekend used to be normal until this year when a worldwide pandemic hit. Now in order to be out like that everyone must wear a mask and stay six or more feet apart.
Modernism was about the exploration of art. New styles were used along with the freedom of creativity to create art unlike anything else seen before. The era of Modernism has helped shape art to the point where it is at now.
Image Source: lumen
Postmodernism is the movement that followed Modernism. During this era a whole new type of art was used, this art embraced the ideas used by new thinkers.
Postmodernism is shaped around what Modernism was. The type of art being created was quite different though from previous eras. Postmodernism art was based more on photography, architecture and different ways of thinking.
The architecture that I chose to look at is the AT&T building in New York and was created by Philip Johnson. The building was created in the 1980’s and is meant to demonstrate what at the time was a skyscraper while the design of it was art deco inspired. Art deco caused fame throughout the 1980’s based on the fact that many were rejecting the idea of Modernism's clean lines and geometric forms on buildings. Johnson chose to use a broken pediment at the crown of the building which stemmed from Greek or Roman art.
Since Postmodernism is the most recent era that we are studying, it is easier to find ways that it connects to modern culture. When the AT&T building was built it was considered a skyscraper, but now I'm sure there are many other buildings that tower over it. For Postmodernism this building was definitely a huge accomplishment which now looks a little different nowadays.
In relation to modern culture it shows that we have improved our ways of architecture and how we build our buildings. Without the previous eras architecture would never have been at the point it is at now. Buildings in cities have evolved over the years thanks to the artists and designers that have adapted throughout the eras.
Image Source: The Art Story