In his book “The Hypercomplex Society” Lars Qvortrup talks about how we can create optics that we use to view the world trough. By changing and modifiying the lens wich we se the world trough we can observe and understand other aspects and fasets of our own society.
In chapter 7 he explands on how art is reflective of how mankind sees, or wants to see itself. He goes to say that we have gone from a human-centric view to a multi-faset view that is constantly redefining itself, or to simplify we have gone from Leonardo Da Vinci “The Vitruvian Man” to Picassos “Portrait of Nusch Eluard”.
Leonardo Da Vinci – Vitruvian Man – ca.1485-90
Pablo Picasso – Portrait of Nusch Eluard – 1937
Seeing these images it is easy to agree with Qvortrup, we may very well have gone from a human-centric view to a more poly-centric view, in terms of how we se ourselves. Yet I don’t completly agree. I think that different views have always existed, it’s just become more acceptable to present these views in our modern day democracy that is build upon the idea that we are all different and have a right to be so.
Qvortrup mentions the impressionist movement that went in a radical new direction in terms of artistic style and visual representation. One of my favourite paintings is from J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) that is called “Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway” from 1844. I saw it once in the National Gallery, London. What made a deep impression (pun intended) was that it looked nothing like a train, yet captured the essence and feel of the scene that resonated with the idea and concept of a train moving trough the landscape.
J.M.W. Turner – “Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway” – 1844
Even tough Turner falls under the era of romanticism, I personally feel that much of his art is impressionistic. It should be noted that he was a huge influence on Eduoard Manet, who in turn is said to be the forerunner of the impressionism. The interesting thing to notice here is that this is the presentation of how the artists sees the world. This is Turners vision of a industrial society, a roaring beast that speeds trough the landscape in a golden-dark stride. It fits with Qvortrups idea of having optics to view society, and that these ever changing optics in turn change ourselves and our society.
