Visual arts served different functions throughout history

I'm in the final editing of the volume 2, of my series, titled "Modernity" ... and can't resist sharing this short passage about the different functions visual arts have assumed under the different models of society that succeeded each other along the path of societal evolution. 
 

Bear in mind that the volume 4 of this series will focus exclusively on the arts so my touching on this subject in the volume "Modernity" is necessarily sketchy... 

 

Digital variations : Wall 204 is online

The complete gallery of 256 digital variations composing wall 204 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection. The size of each of these variations is 60 x 90 cm and the complete wall is 9.6 x 14.4 meters. Click on the images to get a larger size at 1200 x 800 px. 

 

 

The 4th batch of 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Pushing the envelope to 19.2 x 28.8 meters ...  (continuum of 1024 digital paintings). 

This 4th batch represents the 4th quarter of the wall (D) and represents 256 paintings...  

The print size of each digital painting is 60 x 90 cm and the complete gallery of this 4th quarter of wall 2-02 is now online (Gallery D = 256 paintings).

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

The 3rd batch of 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Pushing the envelope to 19.2 x 28.8 meters ...  (continuum of 1024 digital paintings). 

The third batch represents the 3rd quarter of the wall and represents 256 paintings...  The print size of each digital painting is 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery of this second quarter of wall 2-02 is online (Gallery C = 256 paintings).

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

The 2nd batch of 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Pushing the envelope to 19.2 x 28.8 meters ...  (continuum of 1024 digital paintings). 

This second batch represents the second quarter of 256 paintings...  The print size of each digital painting is 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery of this second quarter of wall 2-02 is online (Gallery B = 256 paintings).

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

The first 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Since Beijing is still at a standstill, due to the coronavirus spreading from Wuhan, I initiated a new series of digital variations from painting 2-02 of the grand project.

Once terminated this new wall will total 1024 digital paintings that will be available as limited edition prints sized each at 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery of the first quarter (A = 256 paintings) of wall 2-02 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

Wall 201 is online

I took the opportunity of Beijing's standstill, due to the coronavirus spreading from Wuhan, to terminate a new series of digital variations,

The complete gallery of wall 2-01 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

Wall 105 is online

Wall 105. 9.6 x 14.4 meters.

The complete gallery, of all 256 digital variations of painting 1-05 from "the grand project"  is online.


Check some of these here under

Wall 104 is online

Oil painting 1-04. Size 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery, of all 256 digital variations of painting 1-04 from "the grand project"  is finally online.

Digital transformations wall 104. (02).

Some new transformations of original painting 1-04 from the Grand Project.

Digital transformations wall 104

Some new digital transformations

1. First some links to necessary technical information:

• what is the "Grand Project" ?
• differences between digital transformations and algorithmic painting
• how does organic art measure up in artistic evoluttion
• galleries to Digital Transformations Walls 101, 102, 103

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First 2 paintings from the 104 series

I started the digital transformations of painting 1-04 of the "grand project". This series will total 256 digital paintings and they are forming a continuum as you can see on Digital transformations 1 +  2. When this series is terminated the wall of 256 paintings will have a size of  9.6 x 14.4 meters. The original oil painting as well as the prints of each digital transformation have a size of 60 x 90 cm.

Click on images to blow up to your screen width.

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What’s going on here ? (10)

5. art in the societal maelstrom

 
“ The situation we are in –in terms of what receives attention and prominence– is post-art. At this time, and in social space, art is basically an adjunct of the entertainment business. … The issue is how to snap art out of its death trance –living its own death, so to speak– and make it once again a living and lived experience.” ¹.

“How to snap art out of its death trance and make it once again a living and lived experience” ?    Hum… assumptions will not revive the function of art Mr. Kuspit !

The reality is that, over 99.9% of the historical span of societal evolution, art was first and foremost a societal matter while the individual genius was at best an accessory. In that sense snapping art out of its death trance, if it ever happens, will be a societal feat and not the heroic act of individual geniuses. And the probability, that such a societal feat will be instigated by human will, does not register high on the scale of realism.

But how did art enter its death trance in the first place ?

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Organic art = the patterns of life (6)

5.  After-Modernity and the prospects of an artistic awakening

Over the last 50 years a great convergence has slowly been taking place, between – the crisis of the governance-world – and the multitude side-effects of Modernity, that is evolving into a drastically new living environment.

This convergence will result in a radical drop of the world population and life will be forced to re-organize locally in small groups surviving under the reign of necessity. Their most vital priority will be the reproduction of their societies over the long haul and to ensure this the minds will be glued by new foundational narratives grounded in myths fixing the memory of what caused the fall of Modernity.

Modern knowledge will rapidly be forgotten and visual signs will thus become the vehicle of choice to share knowledge with all. That’s how the historical nature of art returns with a vengeance … 

Digital variations of oil paintings

I had been playing with various fractal apps in the early 2000’s and marveled shortly at the wild gyrations on the screen. But I rapidly started to feel uneasy with the machine like perfect outcome of those works. Such a perfection in my eyes appeared to be devoid of life characteristics such as the flaws that litter the path taken by the process of constant transformations that life is all about. In the case of a visual sign such flaws of life can take different forms like an imperfection in a line indicating an accidental move of the author’s hand. I always felt that the absence of such signs of life deny human craft qualities to these works. And this is how I started to experiment diverse methods to digitally transform photographs of my paintings. In 2006 I terminated 12 digital variations of each of the 40 acrylics in my acrylics “artsense” series. This gave 480 digital variations that were edited as very short limited edition prints. These works can be viewed here.

I later summed up my feelings about what I see are the main differences between fractals and digital transformations in the following posts:

E-book

An e-book of all posts in the series “A growing disconnect between China and the West”.

After editing the posts the e-book totals 150 pages.

Click on its cover page hereunder for download.

Tentative Visual Encyclopedia of art

How to understand art?

Through reason with words?

Or through images of the thing itself?

The communist party ‘owns’ China

In the Peoples Republic of China the communist party literally owns the institutions of state and no interference in the decision making of these institutions is accepted by any group of interest. This is quite different from the West where lobbies write the laws relating to their interests. What this means is that the communist party has an absolute control over the way society functions. Now this does not mean, as most Westerners believe, that China is a dictatorship. Individuals and economic actors are participating in the decision making process by giving their ideas and opinions about what should be done. During this consultation phase civil society debates with the representatives of the party and the state about solutions and the media also relays these debates. Once the consultation phase concludes civil society retreats and lets the party and state institutions formalize the decisions and their implementation. And once the rules of the game have been formalized everybody is expected to participate in their implementation.

How societies work & the role of worldviews and art

In my last post I tried to brush a rapid sketch of the profound mental disconnect between the West and China. In the present post I’ll brush an even more rapid sketch about how large societies function; it lays the foundations upon which, in my next 3 posts, I’ll build a more in-depth comparative analysis between the present and the future of Western and Chinese societies.

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Restarting to blog

To my regular readers "welcome back" and to new readers "welcome".


Recapitulation

Since I stopped blogging over a year ago let me start with a recapitulation of my past blogging activity.