Cultural Changes
Nothing can tell us more about cultural changes of some period than works of painters and sculptors of that period. Analyzing their work and knowing the history, one can analyze the cultural period as a whole. To my opinion, the brightest representatives of the 1880-1914 period are Vincent Willem van Gogh and Constantin Brancusi.
Vincent Willem Van Gogh is the artist with an extraordinary destiny. Throughout his creation, he sought to portray ‘the essence of things’. The famous ‘Starry Night’ created by the artist in 1888 is one of few painted ‘by imagination’. It is one of the best known and most enigmatic paintings of Van Gogh. The picture strikes with strange feeling of ‘non-fiction’ of the extraordinary sight. The Earth’s landscape connects features of the north and south of France and becomes a generalized image of the peace of human population. The terrifying landscape of the sky reigns over it. While the village is asleep, silvered by moonlight, the eternal incomprehensible labor of worlds’ creation lasts in the cosmic ocean. The moon and stars are surrounded by a vast spherical halo, pale gold, blue and white-hot one. Unknown light wave rolls over the horizon and above the milky-blue steep spiral races, making a double bend.
Constantin Brancusi worked on the creation of his own original style of sculptural abstraction. He was one of the first to start moving in this direction. In Brancusi’s works, one may feel much less influence of Cubism and other styles of drawing abstraction than in the works of other artists. ‘Bird in Space’ (1928) is not an abstract image of a bird, but the embodiment of the flight. Its immateriality is emphasized by careful polishing, which gives the surface the ability of mirror reflection, and thus creates a new connection between the constructed space inside and free outside. The considered object is of the beautiful and symmetrical form. Although association with the bird may cause difficulties, it is doubtlessly an artistic object that looks pleasant. Doubtlessly, it is the original work of a professional sculptor, and should be classified as a sculpture and the work of art.
As a rule, the first thing that forces people to make some cultural changes is developments in politics, relationship with other people and new technologies. In the late nineteenth century, in 1880-1905, the New Industrial Revolution took place. A lot of inventions were made, such as steam engine; the first wireless signal was sent; people lived in the new era, being characterized by appearance of automobiles, telephones, submarines, airplanes, etc. All this caused the new approach to the art and psychology. A lot of artists tended to reject a progress. As a result, the nouvelle vague appeared, such as Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In 1905-1914 the process of ignoring progress continued. However, that period was marked by fast scientific developments that could not be ignored. A lot of artists tried to show the changing world in their creations, as scientists and psychologists reflected. The new ideas in regions also made their contribution to the cultural changes. The artists tried to visualize the new spiritual essence in the abstract manner. Nowadays one may say that the world does not change so drastically. However, it changes even more essentially. Twenty years ago no one could imagine mobile phones or laptops. All this makes an influence on the whole culture. The nouvelle vogue, called Postmodernism, appeared. It emerged as the antithesis to Modernism, which is opened for understanding only to little people. Postmodernism is couching everything in the game form and eliminates the distance between the mass and elite consumers. It relegates the elite to the masses. Modernism is an extremist rejection of the Modern World (with its positivism and scientism), while Postmodernism is a non-extremist rejection of the modernity itself.
All the tendencies in the culture show the general mood of a certain nation. Artists are getting tired of the general scientific changes and return to the traditions of the past, but from the perspective of new tendencies. It is enough to study the art for a certain period in order to understand what experiences and events people were into. Art reflects the soul of the nation, all its emotions and reactions.
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