[accessibleimage] Re: Question about art movement

I agree with Jennifer.

My feeling is that any artistic movement tends to be a reflection of a
cultural movement going on at the same time.  Often the artists are ahead of
the culture and often the cultural responses aren't nearly as one might
expect (modernism and the Bauhaus informing Kandinsky, Kafka, Hesse, Joyce,
Proust, Schoenberg, etc informing the culture of fascism that kind of grew
up around it) nor would most find romanticism (Beethoven, Schubert,
Coleridge, Wordsworth, those big paintings of seascapes...) to have informed
populism and the rise of democracy but, alas, they seem to have done so.

Of course, was there a cultural period associated with "impressionism?"  Did
Monet, Sati, Serat and Debussy inform any particular social movement?  Was
abstract expressionism more of a reaction to culture than part of it?  I can
see, in a billion ways, how Andy and the other pop artists informed the
decades since (can anyone believe Andy's been dead so long?)  and I see how
post-modernism is informed by and informed culture.

A movement of disabled artists, in my opinion, would be part of a broader
artistic movement.  If there was a sudden trend toward Braille embossed art,
I would think it would be a particular category of presentation of whichever
artistic movement is happening around such artists.  I don't think blind or
otherwise disabled artists live outside the mainstream culture anymore than
African Americans, Moslem Norwegians, etc.  They might bring a particular
perspective but I don't think they would create a full movement with all of
the trappings and cultural artifacts outside of a larger movement.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Cornell West writes of post modernism and whatever it is we're in now that
followed that the African American contributions (hip hop and the boom of
street poetry, graffiti, moral ambiguous views of hatred) were as much part
of mainstream post modernism as minimalist composition and other more
typically "white" forms.  We're all in this together and no artist can be an
island.

Enjoy,
cdh   

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jennifer Justice
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 2:47 PM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Question about art movement

It would seem to me that artistic movments
(particularly Western artistic movements) tend to
evolve out of a set of shared aesthetic, theoretical,
or ideological principles rather than a technological
advance or the novel application of technology for
making art. If there is a movement comprised of blind
artists/ disabled artists (and I believe there is-
check out the Bodies of Work Festival that took place
in Chicago in Aprl for a good example), then that
movement is motivated by sociological/ politcal
factors more than by technological innovations,  Even
if a bunch of people started making Braille embosser
art and their was a nationwide craze for it, it would
probably fall under the category of a new artistic
medium as opposed to a movement.  Another way of
explaining it would be that PhotoShop users do not
comprise an artistic movement but what some digital
artists do with it could be thought of in that way.

Great question Lisa!

Jennifer

--- Lisa Yayla <fnugg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
> Was wondering about something.
> 
> Elizabeth Goldring  uses the ophthalmoscope as a
> medium for artist 
> expression. I was having a discussion a bit back
> with an artist about 
> using an embosser to create art. Isn't this  a new
> trend? Using tools 
> that are specifically meant for the visually
> impaired to create visual 
> and tactile art? Of course I know there are many
> visually impaired 
> artist but aren't these tools untraditional in the
> sense that they 
> haven't been used for that purpose before?
> 
> Any thoughts about this?
> 
> Regards,
> Lisa
> 
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com

Other related posts: