I was reading an ELI5 post teh other day about how time relates to artistic whims, and it really got me thinking.The clarification centered around how artistic trends often reflect the anxieties, hopes, and technological advancements of a specific era. A good example is the shift from realistic portraiture to impressionism as photography emerged; artists no longer needed to perfectly capture reality because cameras could do that, freeing them to explore subjective experiences and fleeting moments.
But it seems like ther’s more to it than just reacting to the present. Don’t artistic whims also involve a kind of dialog with the past? Like, artists might deliberately reject or reinterpret previous styles, or draw inspiration from past aesthetics but filter them thru a contemporary lens. And then there’s the whole question of how time affects our *perception* of art. A painting created during one period might resonate completely differently with audiences in another, because the social and cultural context has changed. Does this mean the “meaning” of art is constantly shifting, becoming intertwined with the time in which it’s experienced, not just the time it was created?
It makes you wonder if true originality is even possible, or if all art is ultimately a reflection of its temporal context, a conversation across the ages about what it means to be human in a particular moment.