Are We Killing Art?
Yesterday I headed over to the site Good Reads to leave a comment about a poetry book I had just finished reading, and to my surprise, I stumbled across a review that kind of went like this:
“Ugh, this is so not poetry. Just because you hit enter after each sentence doesn’t make it a poem, this is just some emo Tumblr crap. Want poetry?” and then, she proceeded to name some of the best poets of all time. She also added something like “I can't help feeling sad at the direction poetry is moving in.”
Aside from the fact that’s her opinion, and she’s entitled to have it, what stroke me the most about it was the fact that, not only a lot of people agreed with her, but their arguments were “art is dying; it was so much better in the old days.”
And it got me wondering, are we killing art?
Most art movements and periods throughout the history of human-kind are reflections of what the society was undergoing at the time of creation. Newer technologies, ideologies, and life perspectives are a part of the piece of art in question. And considering societies shape its artists, it's almost impossible not to see these things reflected in the canvas too.
Watching a movie made 20 years ago will reflect different issues and will show distinct values from the ones we have today. It's not better, or worse; it's just different. The same thing happens with music, literature, painting; you get the idea. And we hear this stuff every time!
Music being overly criticized to the core for not being freaking Beethoven anymore. Painters who are now using digital devices to create their pieces instead of regular brushes. And writers, whose poetry is dark, emotional and it doesn’t entirely rhyme.
Vincent Van Gogh received little to no recognition while he was alive since his paintings were considered too dark since they lacked the bright liveliness of Impressionist time. Franz Kafka is seen today as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, but that wasn’t his reality when he was alive and well, to the point he even asked his closest friend to burn all his work on his death. Edgar Allan Poe struggled most of his life to make a living as a writer, and now he is credited with helping bring credibility to the short story, detective fiction, and science fiction. Oh, and Johann Sebastian Bach? Yeah, his work as a composer went largely unrecognized until the early 19th Century.
People keep tearing down our modern artists with the argument that everyone was better in the past, and they keep forgetting these incredibly talented people were once utterly misunderstood and criticized in their time too, by people like them.
So, are we really killing art or are we just wired to reject anything that makes us uncomfortable?
I’m not saying we should praise every single piece of modern art we see just because of its contemporaneity; let’s be honest, there’s a lot of crap out there. But there are also some pretty incredible artists around the world who are pushing the limits and finding new ideas to convey feelings and emotions; and just because we aren’t 100% comfortable with the idea of the rules they are breaking to get there, it doesn’t mean their art is terrible. Or wrong.
“Classics are classics because they are still powerful throughout the time” I read somewhere once, and I agree.
We have no idea what the next classics will be; maybe in 50 years art will be filled with fanfiction, poems that don’t rhyme, electronic sounds and digital illustration and, you know what's so great about that? It will be the reflection of the world we are living right now, and whether you hate that idea or not, it’s pretty awesome to think we are all leaving our little mark in the history, right fucking now.
Art is beautiful, it should be part of us,it tells the wonders of God's creations. Thanks and we look forward to see art live for man kind. Keep up with steemit.