Essay on Art in the 20th Century
I just read a speech of Werner Haftmann, an art historian and
former director of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, who, together
with Arnold Bode, established the "documenta" in Kassel
in 1955.
The speech I am referring to was also the opening speech of the
first "documenta" and Haftmann explains therein the interrelation
between modern painting and the changes that had occurred in the
20th century in how man saw himself and the world.
In the 20th century humanity gained knowledge that totally changed
its outlook on the world; the worst wars that ever happened, political
systems were created, that brought man utmost freedom but at the
same time existential anguish, humanitiy's whole idea man of the
world was turned around completely.
What people previously had considered firm realities - the tree,
the table, the house - all of a sudden became relativized by new
scientific knowledge, formally firm things now were seen as consisting
of intangible energy fields, of atoms, molecules, electrons, and
the energy contained within defining shape.
So... from firm things to inner energy or dynamic...
A blooming cherry tree that earlier sufficed to be seen as just
that, suddenly became the manifestation of larger and more general
phenomena: the waxing (and eventually waning) in life, genetic
processes, etc. To the interest in static, firm things, the interest
in what IS, another concern was added: that in dynamic processes
and energetic truth.
The representative (realistic) painting engages in examining the
condition or state of objects. But in order to represent these
newly discovered dynamic and energetic processes a new language
had to be found, and finally was found in abstract painting. This
is why there are abstract paintings that carry representational
titles: the artist was not seized by the external appearance in
form, but rather by the inner dynamic processes, that he or she
then depicted.
In this context it is important to understand that modern thinking
is a combination of wide awake, logical intelligence on one side,
and of deep intuition on the other. One tends to assume that scientists
do nothing but make logical conclusions, nevertheless the quanta
leaps of insight, the important, the fundamental discoveries would
never have happened without intuition.
In abstract art an artist combines both capacities and above all
by means of his or her intuition to feel within, can empathize
with things and objects, and therefore grasp their internal, invisible
structure.
Haftmann says that modern art is indefinitely cerebral (regarding
its means) on one side, and on the other indefinitely meditative
(regarding its content).
Modern painting is studio painting - it is not being created out
in nature, in the jubilation of appearances, but rather in the
studio, in the cubicle, in a process of industrious manipulation
out of meditation and memory.
At the same time the modern art is oriented forwards, is it a
sort of "freedom forwards", a process of finding. The
Picasso quotation "I do not seek, I find" expresses this
crucial point: if the artist was seeking, he must have known something
previously, a goal however darkly suspected. To "find" however
implies perfect ingeniousness, the basically experimental character
of the process of creation.
Why does the artist embark on this adventure of finding, and why
do people crave for art? In each and everyone of us, who we are
so full of cerebral knowledge, things unconscious and only vaguely
sensed exist. And man longs for touching just this something, so
that it becomes conscious/known and thus part of his active vigor.
The artist goes after this "something" just like a hunter
who pulls into wilderness. And in his works he brings back the
prey in order to make it available to society.
The insights that he or she found are accessible to the spectator
through the work of art. This is why the visitor at an exhibition
should approach art just as openly as the artist approaches the
world; not with an attitude of seeking, that will always only bring
back confirmations of the already previously known, but rather
with an attitude of finding - with openness, an asking curiosity,
a loving expectation.
Modern art, Haftmann says, is essentially "l'art pour l'homme",
art for the individual, and it serves the encounter with consciousness
of the characteristic uniqueness that is the dignity of every human
being.
Sources:
The art historian and earlier director of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin
(19067 - 1974) Prof. Dr. phil. Werner Haftmann (1912 - 1999) established
together with Arnold Bode the "documenta" in Kassel in
1955.
He was among the first to recognize in modern
painting the expression of the changes that had occurred in the
20th century in how man saw himself and the world.
Werner Haftmann. Über das moderne Bild.
Opening speech at the exhibition "documenta" art of the
20th century, FAZ 30.07.1955.
Links:
Abstract Painting, Abstract Art, Absolute
Art - an article on history and development of abstract art
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