"There is too much to keep up with and it is beyond any individual to fully grasp. So any artist needs to first turn inward and follow their own intuition rather that looking outward for direction." I'm interested in your comment. Was there a time when artists could take an overview of everything in their field? if so, when did that become impossible?
There was a time when artists could 'think' they had a handle on the field. It wasn't true really but they figured they could keep up with what was relevant in their region or country or city and could afford to ignore the remainder as unimportant. This was usually done through going to the annual academy salons. Anything left out was considered unimportant or inferior. But at a certain point they started having the 'Salons des Refusé's' beginning in 1863 of the rejected paintings. But this had a lot to do with new modern ideas starting to sully the purity of the academic narrative. Soon Impressionism started entering the scene and eventually the academic façade started crashing down and the flood gates opened. Then of course was photography which caused a crisis and by the 20th century the little independent magazines spreading ideas, the postal system, then the world wars, etc. all of the destruction and displacement. So here we are with the internet, global communication and interconnection in real time with no general narrative at all or a thousand different ones and a super abundance of information and no way to absorb it. I think this causes most people to bunker up and hunker down in their chosen enclaves to shelter from the overwhelmingness of everything. We are in the middle of a data storm but we still, individually, have to function in our daily lives, to find our own internal north star.
"There is too much to keep up with and it is beyond any individual to fully grasp. So any artist needs to first turn inward and follow their own intuition rather that looking outward for direction." I'm interested in your comment. Was there a time when artists could take an overview of everything in their field? if so, when did that become impossible?
There was a time when artists could 'think' they had a handle on the field. It wasn't true really but they figured they could keep up with what was relevant in their region or country or city and could afford to ignore the remainder as unimportant. This was usually done through going to the annual academy salons. Anything left out was considered unimportant or inferior. But at a certain point they started having the 'Salons des Refusé's' beginning in 1863 of the rejected paintings. But this had a lot to do with new modern ideas starting to sully the purity of the academic narrative. Soon Impressionism started entering the scene and eventually the academic façade started crashing down and the flood gates opened. Then of course was photography which caused a crisis and by the 20th century the little independent magazines spreading ideas, the postal system, then the world wars, etc. all of the destruction and displacement. So here we are with the internet, global communication and interconnection in real time with no general narrative at all or a thousand different ones and a super abundance of information and no way to absorb it. I think this causes most people to bunker up and hunker down in their chosen enclaves to shelter from the overwhelmingness of everything. We are in the middle of a data storm but we still, individually, have to function in our daily lives, to find our own internal north star.
Thank you for such a fabulously insightful reply, Cecil! I really appreciate it.