"Sculpture in the Age of Doubt" Chapter 1+2 Summaries

Chapter 1:

Throughout time artists have been going through particular changes that influence each progressing era. Before the Enlightenment period there was not a clarity in the world that people could follow, only religion was the base of knowledge. As time evolved artists explored ideas and decided to turn to science to solve inquires and give explanations rather than having the main focus on religion. The nature of the soul and the “sublime” elements that tend to base the mind were the thoughts in question. The age of Enlightenment seemed to be the new age of expression that gave insight and clear thinking, that the sublime was the core expression, which then changed to the terror in the sublime. Artists like William Blake show the power of this dark period with images of the “end all” and fearsome interactions with the devil. For a time this period seemed to have humanity in its grasp as though it understood how things work and set a path for thinkers in the new age of doubt.

As the human race continues to push forward, the past becomes questionable. Artists begin to state things as unidentifiable and how one must question everything. Modernism was born to reject ideas from the past and strive to form new ways of creation. It was a new age that changed the way of thinking and even further pushed the limits of the mind. It was because of these new ideas that created the Post-Modernism era, which literally seeks to break down all boundaries.

The mind was to search for complete freedom and allow itself to exist with no limitations. This current period wants to deconstruct past elements and bring in enlightenment through liberating the soul of mental boxes that the previous times have built to form an identity for the human existence. It wants change and new fresh thinking that is different and not completely limited to people's vanities and what appears in reality. This era is searching for sublation.

Questions:

1. Could completely loosing guidelines cause chaos?
2. Do we need to use our past to push forward?
3. Should we accept this new age of thinking as a chance to truly reach freedom of the mind?

Chapter 2:

Postmodernism defines the era after World War II. It shows the depth of the changes that have occurred in cultural attitudes mostly in the Western world. There have been more changes in practice and theory in the arts between 1947 to 1976 than any other historically documented period for tens of thousands of years. This time provokes free thinking and expansion of what exactly can be considered art, which leads us to the end of the age of certainty and the new era of doubt.

In the past art could be classified as having two main bases, the visual or the internal root. Now, where the visual was dominant in the past, it has now been reversed. This new age has now become more open to subject matter that was once condemned and avoided by the previous evolutionists. Gradually as the free-expression progressed it began to incorporate the “everyday world” within the art world, because now anything can become art.

In sculpture, postmodernist artists have portrayed “soulless” or everyday objects into their pieces, showing the true realism of life expression and what is in the physical world rather then what exists in the mental conscience. This allows the ultimate freedom because of the limitless possibilities that can be created with sculpture.

The Renaissance period regarded painting as a higher form of art because of the manual labor involved with sculpture, it was considered equal to “slave” work. Although it was not seen as the same level of class as painting. Both outlets share a special connection that bonds one another through a “universal vision”. They see the human as a deity, the soul trapped within its chamber, the body. For thousands of years artists have been focusing on the inner spirit and revealing its prison, not the soul itself. Sculpture brings in that true realism by creating the physical presence. It is considered the way out of the old era and into the new.

Painting has limitations because of how it can only express an essence rather than physicality, which is why sculpture may lead into the next generation of art. It becomes the new because it exists in the real world rather than inside the vast mind.

Questions:

1. Which form of art was considered higher during the Renaissance? Painting or Sculpture?
2. Are artists beginning to see their own inner soul and expressing it in their work?
3. Can literally anything become a sculpture?