Politics, Art, and Pointlessness

Some of you may be familiar with Winner’s article Do Artifacts Have Politics? in which Winner discusses how nothing is free of the inherent grip of political motivation. From television to highways to mechanical plant harvesters, everything we see day-to-day has some (purposeful or not) political consequence. This phenomenon is not just limited to technological creations, one of the most powerful political motivators, and also one of the most reflective artifacts of the society in which it exists, is art.

“Does are reflect culture, or shape it?” is a question which has been asked by artists and philosophers for a very long time. Whether one or the other is true there is an undeniable link between society and art, and even more so between art and politics.

Politics have been inherent in art since the beginning of recorded history.  In Ancient Egyptian culture the people ruled not by the power of a king, but by belief that their king was actually directly related to the gods. In Ancient Egyptian art figures were not realistically represented, instead they were symbolic. The Pharaoh, when depicted, was shown at a much larger scale than those around him as a representation of his power. Those of higher social tiers were generally larger, all the way down to slaves being represented as being barely as tall as the Pharaoh’s knee. Only in such a society could a construction such as the Sphinx come into being. A massive sculpture/structure depicting the head of a Pharaoh on the body of a lion, think about the kind of message that sends about the society that built it, and worshiped the man who had it built.

Source: http://xkcd.com/197/

During the era of Ancient Greece art took a different turn. From the City States that created the prototype for the ideal political system, came also the ideal of perfect figurative art. Ancient Greece can be considered the starting point for the pinnacle of high classical artwork. They defined the cannon of proportions, the layout of the human anatomy, and much more that went into creating the ideology of realism. Greek art was obsessed with the individual, the character. Look at how reminiscent this is of the Greek democracy; where the people make the rules; where the individual creates the society.  There is more to it than that, as Plato laid out in his political dialogues the society is the entity, and the individual is a piece of that creation. The important thing though is that the Republic stands on the supporting pillars that are the people, and it is this focus on the personal character that we see reflected in their art.

In stark contrast to classical Greek realism there lies medieval art. During this era the western world was dominated by the Papacy. As such the focus of civilization was considerably shifted, instead of the focus the individual character or even on society the focus was on religion. Art throughout this era attempts to convey not the solidity of reality, but an otherworldly ethereal realm. Similar to Ancient Egyptian art, character central to religion are represented as larger characters, important objects and concepts are focused on and lesser items are merely a backdrop.

This leads us to where we are today: modern society and modern art. This is a topic which has no definitive resolution, and is still discussed. Art has become something which is no longer defined. It is no longer measurable or quantifiable. Modern art seems to have become a personal “experience”, dependent upon the meaning that a given individual gives to an “art piece”. Without any empirical measure of what art means today, there is no longer any definition of “good” and “bad”, merely “art”. This personal relativity of art (so to speak), has created a unique definition. Whereas art in previous societies has a purpose or a meaning, it now just is. “Art of art’s sake” is a saying that began in the 19th century, where some of the roots of this abstraction may be traced back to. If modern art is objective to the viewer, and there no longer exists a true quantitative measure of the meaning of the art, what does this say about our culture? If art and society are truly inextricable, when art no longer has an intrinsic identifiable meaning and is not beholden to the values of “good” and “bad”, what has our society become?