Opinion Art magnifies imagination
History has documented different eras that have taken business forward. Technology advancement in the 19th century established the mechanical age,the 20th century belonged to electronic technology....
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History has documented different eras that have taken business forward. Technology advancement in the 19th century established the mechanical age,the 20th century belonged to electronic technology while the 21st century is proving to be based on digital technology. Last week,Id touched upon musical breakthroughs in different eras that contributed to business success. Lets look at the art scene in the West and find how discomfort has set up new art genres with heavy commercial influences.
Before the advent of photography in the 19th century,paintings had represented reality. If an exceptional painter deviated from reproducing realistic form,he was considered anti-society or just plain crazy. The fear of photography replacing an artists livelihood created great discomfort among Western artists. This led to arts first evolutionary form in Expressionism,followed by Impressionism.
Expressionism is the artists interpreted form of a realistic subject. It creates a pictorial form in spite of the artists imagination twisting it. Vincent van Goghs paintings were quite realistic when he was in his motherland,Holland. Look at his Potato Eaters, painted in 1885. Its dark,reflecting his background amongst the working class miners. He came to France in 1886,and his palette changed radically. His Sunflowers painted in 1888 is bright and cheerful.
His failure was van Goghs discomfort,which fuelled the paintings to be hallucinating in expression. Society did not recognise his genius. During his lifetime,he sold just one painting. He committed suicide in 1890 at the age of 37.
Europes openness towards artistic talent is interesting. After his death,van Goghs work was discovered. The extremely high value of his paintings today has created wealth for van Goghs collectors and museums in different parts of the world. This creator of discomfort left behind an avant-garde vision of colour with brushstrokes on canvas. Can business be compared to van Gogh? Are we capable of reviving a neglected dead shell of a brand or company after its tangible presence is gone?
An Impressionist painter executes reality in a semi-abstract form. Unlike Michelangelo who was a realistic artist,Claude Monet painted his thoughts. Monet painted Water Lilies in 1897 from his French style country house at Giverny. People visit Monets house amidst the wilderness,which is like a canvas thats said to be the genesis of Impressionism in 1870s.
As the Expressionist and Impressionist art epochs were building,Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque introduced discomfort at the turn of the 20th century by starting the Cubist movement. A totally new style influenced by tribal art,Cubism simultaneously interpreted the essence of an object,human being or nature from multiple viewpoints. Picasso worked with the human character whereas Georges Braques Cubism was more with objects and nature.
Braque and Picasso shared a close partnership in the same studio for a few years in 190812. Picasso was impetuous and Braque had a sense of order. Their joint ideas unearthed and contributed an immense cultural treasure. Their vision of Cubism created discomfort in the art world.
Surrealism,which is realism in an imaginative world,and the artistic and literary Dada movement were discomfiting jerks in Western Europe in 191623. Dadaists wanted to discover an authentic reality by abolishing traditional culture and aesthetic forms. Their disgust for bourgeois values and despair over World War I made them anti-establishment. Evolving through the phases of Cubism,futurism and metaphysical painting,Salvador Dali joined the Surrealists in Paris in 1929. The group comprised painters Max Ernst,Yves Tanguy and Andre Breton,and filmmaker Luis Bunuel. With artistic form that draws upon psychology and weaves into societys drama,Spaniard Luis Bunuel chose France to locate his masterpieces in. He uncovered French society in surreal dimension. In his film,That Obscure Object of Desire,he wanted to reveal a machismo storyline where a successful businessman narrates his unrequited love for his au pair (live-in maid). The films message is when money and sex reign,love and refinement are waylaid.
Surrealism in paintings has a nostalgic character that evokes layers of imagination residing in the subconscious mind. Although Surrealism did not acquire mass appeal at that time,it established itself as the subliminal foundation of the conservative society. Surrealism carried over to modern times and characterised George Lucas 1977 film,Star Wars. Stephen Spielbergs ET,a mega success, also interpreted the surrealist vision of Max Ernst and Salvador Dali.
Surreal influences influenced business too. When Hollywood was turning dull and dreary,Surrealist fiction films changed both the platform and fortunes of the cinema industry worldwide. The art form can juice up a companys vision into thinking very differently. Even as artists influenced thought processes,manufacturers made surrealist dreams into reality. Surrealism is evident in dream products like Mercedes bionic car or a mobile phone-cum-camera-cum-computer-cum-music bank in your hand.
The Western world is intensely involved with the lateral thinking of their artists. These influences reveal continuity and consistency across art,music,film,fiction,industry and business. The imagination of painters has created discomfort,leading to significant human development to enhance the art of life and business.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at
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