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Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Artists Create The Times, Or Times Create The Artist?

It's often said, that history creates the great leaders.

In the times of crisis we remember and often revere the leaders of those times....But do we remember the leaders when everything is just honky dory ?

So,I ask the "Chicken and Egg" question relating to Art and Artists.

Is it that times were right for a revolutionary movement, creating the artists that are renowned today?

or

Was it the work of those artists that created those revolutionary times, they were known for?


DaVinci?

Picasso?

Pollock?

Warhol?

And Others?






Reply Order

Post Reply
 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

i don't think there is a moment of history that will create an artist. there may be inspiration to make certain things. if your creative, you create. how well you do it and what you'll be remembered for is a different question. i don't consider pollock or warhol to be anyone but having good connections to the right people.

like louis tiffany made nice lamps, had a factory, was an interior decorator that used only his stuff. the designs were simply hideous. but they were the fashion of the day. when it was out of fashion, they tossed the lamps and such in the garbage. forgetting that part and fast forwarding to today, the lamps are priceless and he could be used as an example. despite the tossing of his stuff.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

Roger, it's a feedback loop. Chicken-egg-chicken-egg, etc.

Each moment in history is like a magnifying glass, emphasizing certain qualities in everyone. It is the artists who clarify these qualities, by revealing them to the public. When the public experiences the artistic images that resonate with the era, the images seem perfect for those times, and the public responds, and is influenced by the art.

The feedback loop continues, as more people are brought into that zeitgeist, or energy of the moment. The art amplifies and signifies the feelings of that era, until everything evolves and shifts into something else.

Some artists are working at a level that transcends the times, but those who are stuck in gimmicks or trends, and haven't put their own unique voice into their work, may find that they are left behind.

 

David King

8 Years Ago

It's almost certain that the times made Picasso, if he was able to have commercial success with his traditional art he most likely would have never invented cubism. Pollack probably as well, if the art world wasn't going so gaga for the latest twists in modern art he would never have been noticed. Warhol's art was a response to the popularity of graphic art at the time, so at the least he was very influenced by the times. I think Leonardo would have taken the art world by storm whenever he was born. I believe Monet and the other impressionists created their history, but then again if the metal paint tube hadn't been invented would Monet have painted the landscape outside so much? I know the Barbizon painters painted "en plein air" but I don't think they were nearly as dedicated to it as Monet and maybe that was due to the inconvenience of using pig bladders to hold the paint.

 

James McCormack

8 Years Ago

Good question Roger,

David makes a very valid point - paint in tubes and Impressionism, as does Joel about the energy of the moment - the zeitgeist - and how artists interpret it.

When I saw the title - made me think more of visionaries rather than technical aspects (which today might be digital art).
Fascinating book came out some years back:

"Art and Physics" - Leonard Schlain

"Leonard Shlain proposes that the visionary artist is the first member of a culture to see the world in a new way. Then, nearly simultaneously, a revolutionary physicist discovers a new way to think about the world. Escorting the reader through the classical, medieval, Renaissance and modern eras, Shlain shows how the artists' images when superimposed on the physicists' concepts create a compelling fit."
Theres a website http://www.artandphysics.com/ and I think he has something on youtube.

Essentially - the argument is like this - Cubism comes into existence because of the break from traditional physics - light bending and multiple viewpoints - as we approach the speed of light we can see around objects - Cubism and Einstein go hand in hand. Fascinating stuff.

 

Vanessa Bates

8 Years Ago

James, a very interesting point. Would mathematicians who visualize images before solving a problem be considered artists as well? I think it has something to do with Synesthesia because it isn't perceived in the traditional visual sense.

And in keeping with Mr. Shlain's theory is the idea that early architecture started to change once humankind became agrarian. The most efficient way to plow and harvest most often resembled grids. The grids in turn influenced art and architecture—viola, abstract design was born (possibly? I think it had been refuted but am not sure). Unfortunately, I can't remember who thought of that theory.

Nice thread, Roger.

 

Stephen Charles

8 Years Ago

The times create the artist.

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Roger,

Art is a reflection of the times. Mankind keeps progressing and so therefore does art.

Does art lead? Only by fractions at times.

Does physics lead? or science in general? Usually.

Elsewhere a very young man asked his genie question. I offered up being small enough to take shots
of the Higgs boson, the God particle, but with great resolution in my shots. Did I imagine the Higgs boson? Or
did a physicist from the 1970s think of it a long time ago?

Creativity stands of many other people's shoulders.

Dave

 

Vanessa Bates

8 Years Ago

On second thought, is this kind of like the chicken and the egg?

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

The egg hatches the chicken,
unless it is a dog.

With science not everything stays as one chicken.

With some artists nothing ever changes.

Dave

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

@James M: "Cubism and Einstein go hand in hand."

That principle might explain much about the chicken and the egg; it's known that the Freud's insights about the power of the subconscious influenced the surrealists.

Once the artists make the era's principles visible to the public, it amplifies the trends and tendencies that are already there, and it creates a chicken-egg feedback loop where culture drives the artists, and their art in turn drives the culture.

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Just wondering,

Had Turner painted his action masterpiece, titled, "Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbor's Mouth" 110 years later, would he have named it, instead, "Painting # (whatever)"?

And would Whistler never have bothered painting his mother in his, "Arrangement in Grey and Black #1"?

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

Roger, if Turner was painting his work 110 years later, he wouldn't be painting that work; he'd be a product of the modern times, and would no doubt be contributing something innovative, but it wouldn't be what was innovative 110 years ago.

Turner in his day was able to see atmospheric textures that not everyone of that time could see. Were he here now, he would be seeing something new, and naming it appropriately, and whether he called it Painting # Whatever, or something else, it would surely be the work of someone who sees more deeply than most.

 

Robert Kernodle

8 Years Ago

The original question is NOT an "either/or" situation. It is more like a "both/and/sometimes-one-more-than-the-other" situation.

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Joel,

Don't you think, had Turner created this painting in the 1950's, he would have been welcomed to join the club, and have a beer with Pollock, Kline and deKooning at the Cedar Tavern, NYC?


Photography Prints

 

Ed Meredith

8 Years Ago

i'm way ahead of the times so i've decided to do nothing and wait for the times to catch up with me... . ;>))

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

Roger, I believe that Pollock, Kline, and company would regard Turner's abstract realism as hopelessly old fashioned. After all, the expressionists had seemingly abandoned references to the recognizable world by then. Why would they welcome such quaint stuff as a seascape?

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Joel,

How much realism is left in that painting?

I would say that there is a hell of a lot more "Woman" in de Kooning's "Woman" series than "Steamboat" in Turner's painting.

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

Roger, it's true; de Kooning's "Woman" series is recognizable. However, de Kooning's work is distinctly modern in its eschewing of traditional painterly concepts of beauty.

My concern with their reaction to Turner is perhaps more based upon Turner's gorgeousness of texture. My general sense of the New York expressionists of the fifties is that they would regard such expressions of beauty as quaintly out of date.

Turner expresses even a storm at sea in a way that makes the swells of the ocean curiously attractive, and this marks him as an artist of the 19th century.

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Joel,

How about this painting, Turner titled "Cloudy Sky"( because I believe he felt compelled to give it a name)?

Photography Prints

Since Abstract Expressionism is the "Celebration of Paint" and physical act of applying it, I can find no other artist that celebrates the application of paint more than Turner.

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

Ah ha -- If Turner shows up with "Cloudy Sky," I believe now they'll offer him a beer!

 

Robert Kernodle

8 Years Ago

I suspect that Pollock might have regarded Kline's ship painting, NOT with a disdain for quaint, out-of-style beauty, but rather with an objective comparison of its representational fluidity with his own spontaneous fluidity, offering perhaps a revelation about how reality is merely a drip away from chaos.

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Robert,

It seems you've proven my point.

That some great artists were out of sync with the time they were painting.

Turner being a prime example.

When his work could be confused with Kline's.,

 

Robert Kernodle

8 Years Ago

Roger S.,

I would not call it "proving", ... more like agreeing with your direction of thought. We would have to resurrect Pollock to get the proof. (^_^)

 

Paul Cowan

8 Years Ago

"Cubism comes into existence because of the break from traditional physics - light bending and multiple viewpoints - as we approach the speed of light we can see around objects - Cubism and Einstein go hand in hand"

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, 1905. Cubism - 1907 +. So if there is any link (which frankly, I doubt - what artist understood relativity in 1907? Who does now? Anyone here want to explain to me the time dilation effect of approaching the speed of light?) it is art drawing on science, not vice versa. It's extraordinary, really, that Rutherford's model of the atom (replacing JJ Thomson's ideas) actually came AFTER special relativity was described, though some years ahead of the General Theory (are you keeping up, you drawing pictures at the back of the class? - ;-) ) I suppose Dali's melting clocks could be attributed to special relativity but they came 20 years late.

More convincingly, as there clearly is a link, look at the heroic art of Stalinist Russia and its counterpart (almost indistinguishable, except for the symbolic elements) in Nazi Germany. That was art of its (political) time.

Very few artists set off in a new direction without the encouragement, support, permission - or at least disinterest - of the political and religious establishment. The Muhammad cartoons are an example of artists managing to be controversial while staying absolutely inside their own society's encouragement/permission boundaries, then presenting their work as challenging and revolutionary (because it challenges someone else's boundaries).

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

computer work is the wild west of art.

Dave

 

Paul Cowan

8 Years Ago

Turner was painting "off a harbour's mouth", Roger, not a "harbor" .... he was English.

 

Paul Cowan

8 Years Ago

In passing - I wonder if those who think that art is the driving force behind social ideas would apply that theory to the development of Stalinism and fascism, or only to social movements of which they approve? Would there be some cherry-picking on this one?

 

R Allen Swezey

8 Years Ago

When it comes to government sponsored art, no matter what form of government, to me, generally results in uninspired, predictable art.

That includes the work created under the WPA Art program here in the USA, during the same period as Soviet and Fascist art was being produced

 

Viet Tran

8 Years Ago

To awnser your question, I think that there are two types of artists: 1- the ones those who have been riding on the waves of time and 2- the others those who have been washed away into the sea of time.

 

Joe Burgess

8 Years Ago

Viet is spot on!

There are those who create to duplicate and those who create to contemplate.

One generates dollars while the other generates change.

 

Mo Freelton

8 Years Ago

Do Artists lead the way?...or affect trends in society?

No one will dispute the affect The Beatles had in several aspects of society in the 60's

Or how about folk/rock groups of the same era (Bob Dylan etc) who inspired anti war/pollution movements marches and rallies--that made governments "Uneasy"

Did the Gov't have John Lennon investigated...."It aint fair...John Sinclair....."

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Just wondering

Are there differences between the so-called "Serious" art and "Popular" art, in their affect on the times they were created?

 

Lisa Kaiser

8 Years Ago

If an artist rebels against what society is all about in their time, and gets noticed, the artist is creating a shift in perception. But as Allen R Sweezy points out that government or what I call conforming art is uninspired, gets a lot of the attention, and follows a social agenda. It's usually what everyone buys in to so it's very hard to reach people with a different perspective and have sales. Almost all artists will go unnoticed and under appreciated unless they conform. Conformity is critical to high sales and non-conformity might be considered just plain stupid...but the artists that change the world...well they are the best the world knows and you might be the next one of those artists. Good luck to you all.

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

I think most artist operate within the visual language of the past. The standouts are the ones who reflect the current time they live in. (Maybe that is popular vs Serious)

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

"computer work is the wild west of art. "

Confusing medium with message? One's medium does not define an artists statue in the Popular vs. Serious - modern vs past spectrum.

 

Fine art Gallery

8 Years Ago

This is interesting. As I understood, Cubism started at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time a modern movement was influenced by the industrial revolution. Technologies and inventions were introduced to the world. For example, the car industry was introduced in late 1800 through early 1900, with internal combustion engine. That was the main mode of transportation. Electricity was being introduced to Europe and us. A notable event in electrical industry was that Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. So in this case time creates Artist.

 

Vanessa Bates

8 Years Ago

If Turner were alive during the time the Hubble telescope was put into orbit, he might have painted the nebulae as first seen without the corrected lens. Then he might have been seen as a political artist :)

Maybe I'm confusing this thread with another, but wasn't Pollock all about removing the evidence of the artist from the product? So could he have been influenced by eastern reincarnation beliefs where the goal was to cease being reincarnated (and in some reinterpretations, become nothing)? At one time people here were saying that a way to tell a Pollack from a forgery was to run it against fractal routines. His paintings were supposedly always purely random. This article says something else: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/02/computer-algorithm-can-accurately-identify-jackson-pollock-paintings/. A nice case of science being influenced by art, right?

Isn't the concept of what is "serious" or "popular" better determined by the passage of time? Maybe it's the same process that labels an antique a classic: we can tell better from a perspective of a decade or century or so. The artists who were reviled in the Degenerate exhibit are thankfully celebrated today.

If an artist tries to force a political concept in his paintings, he runs the risk of becoming tied to current events. I'm thinking about political cartoonists in this instance. They could be artists in their own right but there aren't too many people studying pieces from the 1800 and 1900's. An artist who express their reaction or mood of an event might fair better over a period of time. Pablo Picasso's Guernica would be an example.

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Confusing medium with message?

No confusion at all there. Different medium different aesthetics. The medium is the message.

People who come here with very solid offline art often have a hard time translating their art to the digital age. Selling
onilne in other words. The medium is all encompassing. And digital is here to stay.

Dave

 

Tony Murray

8 Years Ago

Location. One need to be not just in the right time but in a place in the world where their creativity can flourish. Fame is not accrued but left to collective perception. Artists never created a revolution. Their work might have been revolutionary but none have brought a government to its knees.

 

Vanessa Bates

8 Years Ago

Tony, would that apply to just visual artists or to artists in general? Weren't street performers and theatrical people responsible for a few revolutions?

David B., I'll have to disagree there. I've seen people painting in oils that could be defined as cutting edge while plenty in the digital medium would be considered traditional if it weren't for the computer part. Somehow the flexibility of the digital medium affords many different approaches.

 

Tony Murray

8 Years Ago

I am not sure Vanessa. No street performers come to mind who have changed the world in terms of altering its historical course. Maybe they were part of a burgeoning movement.

 

Rick Al

8 Years Ago

Zeitgeist

the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.


Zeitgeist in Culture

The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era; Zeitgeist is German for “time-spirit.” For example, the Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period included a belief in industrial progress, and the Zeitgeist of the 1980s in the United States was a belief in the power of money and the many ways in which to spend it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zeitgeist

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Tony,

Just wondering,

When "Humpty-Dumpty" had his great fall, were there any ramifications as a result of the splat?

 

Melissa Herrin

8 Years Ago

There is such a saturation of artists today that I dont think that we can change the world. Everyone is going in the opposite direction pulling the world apart and creating chaos. If there was anything I would call todays artworld I would call it 'the great divide'.

traditional artists vs digital artists, modern vs contemporary, traditional vs modern etc.

artist of older generations worked together for the common good. If anything pollock,turner,warhol,rothko etc. showed the art snobs of the day that they could paint whatever the flip they wanted and not be boxed in. Although I am not a fan of their works I applaud the balls they had to snub the snobs.

 

Joel Bruce Wallach

8 Years Ago

Melissa, the wide variety of artists and styles all contribute to a deeper pattern that moves everyone forward. We can't see the pattern, however, because it's too complex. It's like a fractal pattern that's too deep to comprehend, but you can see the result of that fractal when it defines the shape of a pinecone or the shape of a galaxy.

The galaxy of artistic styles and concepts all adds up to something wonderful, but you need to keep creating to ride its wave. No need to understand it, and no need to fear any conflict within it, either.

The way that this deep fractal wave, made up of hundreds of art styles, changes the world is something that is happening under our noses. Its too vast and mysterious to understand at a conscious level, so just keep creating. Your unique creative contribution helps move the whole pattern forward, and it's helping the world evolve, whether you realize it or not.

 

Tony Murray

8 Years Ago

Roger, ask the King's horses and men. For some reason the government got involved in trying to mend him.

 

Vincent Von Frese

8 Years Ago

History creates great leaders? Not necessarily true. Great leaders create history and great artists create great art.


Artists post WW2 were the most excited and energetic in America and Europe and had a lot to say about humanity and the insanity of war. That was the seed of the birth of abstraction and modern art via "Expressionism". There were many many other artists who did "cubism" and Picasso was just another one who jumped on the band wagon. It was an impressionist technique. Social Realism was the art of the Communist. American communists like Benton practiced this form in rebellion against modern art. His student Jack Pollack rebelled against him by throwing paint to demonstrate his "sick and tiredness" with Baroque traditionalism. The "Social Traditional Realism" Benton taught and it's boring presence in the world was pretty but sickening at the same time. Stalin pushed this style in Russia emphasizing labor and industrialism and human work via hammer and cycle..

But the leaders in the world of modern abstract art were the German and French, and the Latvians and Estonians who emerged from the pressure of Russian and German oppression with new and free artistic expression through free spirited art and song in the "Expressionist" movement in art. Americans just sort of added to this reaction in visual art in New York since it was like a new born child after 1945 with immigrants arriving from Europe. Like me many people suffered war and were able to immigrated to New York and this is where things began to happen in western art about 1955.

Currently the digital age is in it's post adolescent period so science is the greatest benefit. Art uses technology as a medium but I'm afraid it's only a temporary fad on trend since it's so easy in comparison to sculpting, carving, brush painting, installations, etc. Photography by digital leaves an uncertain future since it may not be able endure time any more than a typewriter.

 

Viet Tran

8 Years Ago

Vincent, I think that you've raised your very interesting observation about history and art. I am in line with most of what you've written - except your thought about digital art and the digitalized photography. I think that it’s too soon to make any valid prediction about the future trend of digital art and the art of digitalized photography.

 

Vincent Von Frese

8 Years Ago

Yes Viet it may be true I have jumped the gun with such a generalization however I am aware of the solid state of analog data in comparison of the ever evolving digital data fields. The recent photos of Pluto are way back with the Grace satellites and then satellite data are mostly analog still due to the time warp of space travel. I read somewhere fifteen years ago on the Pluto expedition.

Digital images dissolve. At what rate i have no idea but it is not stable like physical material however everything dissolves over time.

 

Viet Tran

8 Years Ago

Vincent. I think any digital image can be converted into a hard copy. Also any painting or collage or sculpture or any other artwork of a traditional medium can also be converted into a digital image. In that sense, there isn’t much difference between the two types of art.

 

Viet Tran

8 Years Ago

I think that creativity in art is not about what type of medium/media which an artist uses. But it lies in what he creates. Unfortunately, while digital artists have used new media in their creative process, they haven’t - successfully - explored any new genre(s) in art. They have stayed on the same path of the Old Masters and that of contemporary artists of traditional media.

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Digital images dissolve. At what rate i have no idea but it is not stable like physical material however everything dissolves over time.

Vincent,

Twentieth century art was in the main known as "disposable art". Pollock really began that with his canvasses that were not fixed.
They will be totally gone in about 100 years. The acids in the paints are eating through the canvasses.

But 3D printing is going to save them. Question is what is a 3D reproduction of a Pollack worth long after all the originals are gone.
BTW my mentor corrected me about the word original as it relates ONLY to photography. Original meaning from the negative, to originate.
They are still making Ansel Adams originals. Then there is the misleading common parlance, to be completely original.

So will Pollack's work be worth anything? Yes in history books. But how many of his 3D prints will sell? Hundreds? Or millions?

My best guesimate? Not so many.

Dave

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Viet Tran,

Not so fast about digital artists.

All art is an abstraction. Even figurative art, a 2D image of a 3D object, an illusion.

With digital tools the abstracting process can be controlled in very unique ways on the macro and micro levels.

The medium, the aesthetics, and the genre can be very different than what the old masters accomplished.

Very few artists have made more serious artwork yet in the digital age.

You can find the Mona Lisa naked and pregnant, but you can not easily find the next Guernica.

Tran I will not image bomb, but see my Acts of War based on Guernica in part.

Dave

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

WARNING!! The following may be a bit hyperbolic


Just wondering,

Do you guys think that since ALL OF US here on this site, are holding on ,with dear life, to the notion that "Fine" Art is meant to hang on walls or stand on a pedestals, it is allowing the "New Time" of creative possibilities* pass us by with amazing speed.

(* "creative possibilities" does Not mean "Shower Curtains")


Edit

Please note: it took this 80 year old, 20 minutes to compose and write the above...

Re Edit:

And it took me 5 minutes for the above edit.

:

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Roger,

Shower Curtains are so Twentieth Century!! Disposable art.

Baseball caps are disposable art. Oven mitts....etc.....

Let me ask you a question from the 1980s, should a canvas be square or rectangular?

Dave

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago










.............................SPACE AVAILABLE....................................


 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Dave,

RE: "Square"

Please define "Square"

square
skwer/
noun
noun: square; plural noun: squares
1.
a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles.
a thing having the shape of four equal straight sides and four right angles.
"she tore a bit of cloth into a four-inch square"
a thing having the shape or approximate shape of a cube.
"a small square of chocolate"
an open (typically four-sided) area surrounded by buildings in a town, village, or city.
"a market square"
synonyms: market square, marketplace, plaza, piazza
"a shop in the square"
an open area at the meeting of streets.
a small square area on the board used in a game.
US
a block of buildings bounded by four streets.
historical
a body of infantry drawn up in rectangular form.
a unit of 100 square ft. used as a measure of flooring, roofing, etc.
2.
the product of a number multiplied by itself.
"a circle's area is proportional to the square of its radius"
3.
an L-shaped or T-shaped instrument used for obtaining or testing right angles.
"a carpenter's square"
ASTROLOGY
an aspect of 90° (one quarter of a circle).
"Venus in square to Jupiter"
4.
informal
a person considered to be old-fashioned or boringly conventional in attitude or behavior.
synonyms: (old) fogey, conservative, traditionalist, conformist, bourgeois, fossil; More
antonyms: trendy
5.
NORTH AMERICANinformal
a square meal.
"three squares a day"
adjective
adjective: square; comparative adjective: squarer; superlative adjective: squarest
1.
having the shape or approximate shape of a square.
"a square table"
synonyms: quadrilateral, rectangular, oblong, right-angled, at right angles, perpendicular; More
antonyms: crooked, uneven
having the shape or approximate shape of a cube.
"a square box"
having or in the form of two right angles.
"a suitable length of wood with square ends"
having an outline resembling two corners of a square.
"his square jaw"
broad and solid in shape.
"he was short and square"
2.
denoting a unit of measurement equal to the area of a square whose side is of the unit specified.
"30,000 square feet of new gallery space"
denoting the length of each side of a square shape or object.
"the office was fifteen feet square"
3.
at right angles; perpendicular.
"these lines must be square to the top and bottom marked edges"
ASTROLOGY
having or denoting an aspect of 90°.
"Jupiter is square to the Sun"
4.
level or parallel.
"place one piece of wood on top of the other, ensuring that they are exactly square"
properly arranged; in good order.
"we should get everything square before we leave"
compatible or in agreement.
"he wanted to make sure we were square with the court's decision and not subject to a lawsuit"
fair and honest.
"she'd been as square with him as anybody could be"
synonyms: fair, honest, just, equitable, straight, true, upright, aboveboard, ethical, decent, proper; informalon the level
"I'm going to be square with you"
antonyms: underhanded
5.
(of two people) owing nothing to each other.
"an acknowledgment that we are square"
with both players or sides having equal scores in a game.
"the goal brought the match all square once again"
synonyms: level, even, drawn, equal, tied; More
antonyms: uneven
6.
informal
old-fashioned or boringly conventional.
"Elvis was anything but square"
synonyms: old-fashioned, behind the times, out of date, conservative, traditionalist, conventional, conformist, bourgeois, strait-laced, fogeyish, stuffy; More
antonyms: trendy
7.
(of rhythm) simple and straightforward.
adverb
adverb: square
1.
directly; straight.
"it hit me square in the forehead"
informal
fairly; honestly.
"I'd acted square and on the level with him"
verb
verb: square; 3rd person present: squares; past tense: squared; past participle: squared; gerund or present participle: squaring
1.
make square or rectangular; give a square or rectangular cross section to.
"you can square off the other edge"
mark out in squares.
2.
multiply (a number) by itself.
"5 squared equals 25"
convert (a linear unit of measurement) to a unit of area equal to a square whose side is of the unit specified.
"there were only three people per kilometer squared"
3.
make compatible; reconcile.
"I'm able to square my profession with my religious beliefs"
be compatible.
"do those announcements really square with the facts?"
synonyms: agree, tally, be in agreement, be consistent, match up, correspond, fit, coincide, accord, conform, be compatible
"the theory does not square with the data"
4.
balance (an account).
"they're anxious to square their books before the audit"
make the score of (a match or game) even.
"his goal squared the match 1-1"
synonyms: level, even, make equal
"his goal squared the match 1–1"
informal
secure the help, acquiescence, or silence of (someone), especially by offering an inducement.
"trying to square the press"
5.
bring (one's shoulders) into a position in which they appear square and broad, typically to prepare oneself for a difficult task or event.
"chin up, shoulders squared, she stepped into the room"
adopt a posture of defense.
6.
SAILING
set (a yard or other part of a ship) approximately at right angles to the keel or other point of reference.
7.
ASTROLOGY
(of a planet) have a square aspect with (another planet or position).
"Saturn squares the Sun on the 17th"


 

Viet Tran

8 Years Ago

Just wondering,

Do you guys think that since ALL OF US here on this site, are holding on ,with dear life, to the notion that "Fine" Art is meant to hang on walls or stand on a pedestals, it is allowing the "New Time" of creative possibilities* pass us by with amazing speed.

(* "creative possibilities" does Not mean "Shower Curtains")

by Roger Swezey


My answer:

No.Maybe some including yourself. But absolutely not ALL OF US would hold on such a simple "notion:", sir. Hee..hee.. I am afraid that after 80 years and 20 minutes, you totally forget about the "Conceptual Art" - an art genre in the Contemporary Fine Art (lol).

 

Joanna Whitney

8 Years Ago

I skimmed this topic's answers, and am going to comment on the original question… being that I went to art school in the 80s in NYC - I now create art in SPITE of the times - to survive the times - and I don't think I will know if I effect the times in my lifetime… maybe some artists who somehow make it big without compromising themselves - like David Hockney - effect fashion trends which trickle down the rest of us some how… I don't know - I thought when I lived in NY that I was going to be a big art star - but quickly found out that I could not stomach the scene - so I went back to what I did before art school - and maybe before there was tv and digital meet ia artists effected the times… but now - I have no idea who effects the times...

 

Vincent Von Frese

8 Years Ago

History first and art a byproduct only. As a human expression of feelings is art. Even primitive and naive art. You might say love and war has created writers, poets and painters.

Art of the past and present seems to be always generating newer artists who are influenced equally more than less by the times. What artist changed world history? The designers of air planes and war machines like Leonardo Da Vince. Architects and engineers are creative artists too aren't they? What art has defined history; well the Egyptian sculptures had. The times gave rise to Greek art defining their identity.

I think people have a need for something new and interesting which would hold their attention and mesmerize them. But what's old to some is new to others. New artists then naturally gravitate toward innovative expressions of art but............................ still the same old basic principles of visual art remain intact.

 

Vanessa Bates

8 Years Ago

Joanna, you learned to survive and produce art in spite of the times? Was your break from the art movements of that time the lesson or was there some convention being taught in the universities at that time?

Tony, my history is paltry at best. I had the impression that the Punch and Judy shows of France were responsible for propagating to the illiterate the rumor that Queen Antoinette said that the people should eat cake. Obviously, that impression must have been from some movie taking liberties since my research yielded nothing in that direction.The starving French were probably more motivated by public readings of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the person thought responsible for the false attribution of the prior phrase. Perhaps oration could be an art form, but no theater or performance art played any role as far as I can tell. However, the art of the region was changed drastically by the times.

So I'm left with the anonymous graffiti artists who help rekindle public sentiment by scrawling Perestrojka in quantities too numerous to be erased before being seen (copying and recopying a logo really) and Paul Revere, who didn't express any of his activism through his silver works.

Time will probably tell whether Voina's act of painting a giant phallus that pointed towards the former KGB building whenever the barge bridge was erect will really have any effect on Putin's views and actions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2qZoAozZXM). Frankly, I still think that artists who put too much of the current without any real reaction will prove too temporal to "matter" (not that what matters doesn't change from one civilization to another). It's possible that the digital medium might re-bridge the gap that has grown between disciplines like art and science, etc (illustration has done so already), It might also change how artists approach their craft or how the viewer thinks art should fit in his or her life through all the products available (as some here have already stated). But does it really matter now?

 

This discussion is closed.