Changes in Art Forms

This naturally translated itself into the canvas art scene but not all artists today who enjoy the right to diversity would accept the label of “Post-Modern”. It is better described as “an altered mood” rather than a new style. Perhaps it is always misleading to think of styles as following each other like soldiers on parade. It is more generally recognised that artists have the right to go their own way.

In recent years artists have taken up the medium of photography for the creation of novel effects that has previously been the preserve of painters. Thus David Hockney has enjoyed using his camera for multiple images somewhat reminiscent of Cubist paintings and abstract art such as Picasso’s picture of “Violin and Grapes” of 1912. His famous portrait of his mother was a mosaic of various shots taken from slightly different angles and also records the movement of her head. One might expect such a combination to result in an incoherent jumble but the portrait is certainly evocative. After all, when we look at a person our eyes never stand still for any length of time and the image we form in our minds when we think of a person is always composite. It is this experience which Hockney has somehow captured in his photographic experiments. It looks as if at the present moment, this conciliation between the photographer and the artist will increase in importance in years to come. To be sure, even painters of the nineteenth century made a good deal of use of photographs, but now the practice is acknowledged and widespread in the search of novel affects.

What these recent developments have brought home is that there are tides of tastes in contemporary art and abstract art no less than there are tides of fashion in clothing or decoration. It is undeniable that many of the old masters whom we admire and indeed many styles of the part failed to be appreciated by very sensitive and knowledgeable critics of former generations. This is certainly true. No critic can be entirely unbiased, but it is wrong to draw the conclusion that artistic values are altogether relative. Granted that we rarely stop to look for the objective merits of works or styles that have failed immediately to appeal to us, this does not prove that our appreciations are entirely subjective. We can recognise mastery of art, and this has little to do with our personal likes and dislikes. You may like Raphael and dislike Rubens, or the other way around, but should recognise that both were towering masters in their own right.