Sunday, 11 April 2010

Contemplating on Style

Art is the visual history of the world.
Throughout history people have  witnessed many shifts in style and  form.
But can each style in Art be seen as a vessel for the aesthetic, social and philosophical concepts of the time it was conceived in?
Or can Art stand on its own and against the winds of change, timeless and untouchable?
Can we really speak of  "l'art pour l'art"?

The style  of an artist is his way of seeing and depicting the world that surrounds him but also his own reflection of it, or the world in his eyes, influenced by his emotions and world views. Therefore the work of art is not merely an imitation of a real object, but a new version of the object with additional nuances of meaning and emotion brought about by the artist's personality. The "mimesis" is not pure.
"Art is the imagination expressed through the senses"

The artistic style is the set of aesthetic criteria through which an artist chooses to evaluate his or her work.
This set of ideas about beauty tell the viewer about the artist's theory of art or what he or she believe is its purpouse.
I would argue  that the artistic style is a type of ideology in the sense that it covers most the main views and ideas on the relationship between man and nature, man and society, psychology and philosophy and etc.

These are all encoded through the visual language (style) the artist uses to express his or herself.

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