Art and Public Opinion - Essay Sample

In modern day world where people have access to information at the simple click of a button, it is quite often difficult to shape public opinion. Art aids people to identify with one another and extends the notion of we- from a local context to a global perspective (Eliasson, 2016). Art is able to mitigate the effect of information scarcity that people face today and helps them to rethink their way of doing things. Courbet's work manifested in his famous painting work of 1849 was concerned with the plight of the poor laborers. It depicts two laborers breaking and removing the stone from a road under construction. Courbet tries to show the apparent disparity in age of the laborers i.e. too young and too old for back-breaking labor. Courbet's work revolutionized the modern artist in the concept that came to be known as "avant-garde". The concept is a French military phrase describing a small troop of soldiers that would scout for enemies ahead of the main forces. From an artistic point of view, it describes as a case in which an artist views his/her art expresses ideas and the ideas not only differs from the rest of the society believes but comes closer the truth (Harris and Zucker, 2014).

Avant-garde evolved from calls and movements for a democratic revolution that was prevalent in America and Europe in the eighteenth century. Ideas of progress had begun replacing the static assumptions on social class and hierarchy of hereditary power. Democracy started being debated openly by many people including philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke. Such a revolution redefined public opinion in such a way that individual ideas started to matter more. In the 1960s and 1970s, art writers and artist increasingly shifted their work to cultural studies and critical theory. The shift in critical thinking emerged from art criticism based on linguistics and philosophy from works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Claude Lev-Strauss. Art transitioned from abstract expressionism to pop art (Harris and Zucker, 2014). Pop art gave rise to iconographic painting as portrayed in the work of Andy Warhol in 1960. Similarly, Roland Barthes work in Mythologies 1957 looked at pop culture as an element in an arena for signage system. By the twentieth century, America had a Protean adaptability in technology, art and economics and therefore the concept of avant-garde, a European innovation could never fit the American context.

Art and Established Traditions

In his work on meaningless work, Walter De Maria tries to portray a different artistic expression. He notes that the aesthetic value attached to such work varies with individuals doing the work and therefore the precise description is impossible. He further adds that meaningless work faces a love-hate situation with intellectuals but it is honest. Meaningless work cannot make it to museum or art galleries nor earn money. It can be as simple as stacking wooden blocks from one box and vice versa (de Maria, 1960). Walter de Maria tries to view art in a different perspective from the traditional artistic expression such as paintings and performing arts. He considers things that are unconventional as art this includes but not limited sex, weightlifting, and other monotonous activities. Most traditional intellectuals would critique such kind of display of art because it can be foolish and an abstract of reality. Art in itself an expression of feelings or point of view of the artist. In fact, Walter advices individuals to try meaningless art work in privacy to avoid reaction of art lovers or else a form of entertainment.

Meaningless work can have all the good attributes of traditional art such as writings and paintings and individuals can have self-satisfaction and good self-esteem as well as that of the outside work (de Maria, 1960). Walter tries to justify the need for meaningless work by stipulating that it is individual in nature like any other art work and it does not have a restriction in terms of time and form. It is a new medium of telling things as they are; expressing the reality. Though the critiques (mostly traditionalist) may cast a dark cloud on meaningless work, individuals would still embrace it given the fact that it is individualistic and lacks restrictions in how you do it and its simplicity.

Burden (1975), examines reality through art. He creates aberrant situations and considers his acts of art as functions in higher reality and a different context. He terms it as re-living the moments. He continues to add that art doesn't have the purpose but a free scene or spot for society to express itself and provide answers to situations. In one of his performance, " five-day locker piece- University of California, Irvine, April 1971; he locked himself in a locker for five consecutive days without eating nor drinking just being locked up. He had another performance in which he was strapped with copper bands on the floor. By his acts, he would push the situation to the limit. His performance would create fear and the crowd would always keep a distance during the performance. In another performance in 1973, he pushed live electric wires into his chest posing a danger to his life. He continues to state that regardless of the danger and the fact that it could lead to death, he feels his acts bring about relaxation. Burden's performance is filled with an adrenaline rush and out of the ordinary (traditional art) to try to express his personal feelings and portray it in reality. He tries to show that beyond fear there a form of satisfaction that one can get.

References

Burden, C. (1975). Untitled Statement. Chris Burden: Through the Night Softly, Jan Butterfield. Arts 49, no. 7(March 1975): 68-72.

De Maria, W. (1960). Compositions, Essays, Meaningless Work, Natural Disasters. Stendhalgallery.com. Available at: http://stendhalgallery.com/?page_id=4846 (Accessed 9 Dec. 2017).

Eliasson, O. (2016). Why art has the power to change the world. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/why-art-has-the-power-to-change-the-world/ (Accessed 8 Dec. 2017).

Harris, B. and Zucker, S. (2014). Courbet, the Stonebreakers. Khan Academy. Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/courbet-the-stonebreakers (Accessed 9 Dec. 2017).