KAVOLIS, Vytautas. on the Crisis of Creativity in Contemporary Art

8/20/2019 KAVOLIS, Vytautas. on the Crisis of Creativity in Contemporary Art

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To

a social scientist

who might at

tempt

to

ap

proach

the

current cr

is is in the

arts

by relat ing

it to the

n

ature

o

f

t

he

contempo

rary

soc ie ty,

th

e

i

nitial

c lue

is

that

no s in

gle style or group

of st

y les

has emerged

that

could be

regarded

as the

essent ia

l and relat iv

e ly

end

uring

e

xpression of the

var ious

fantasy

d

ispos itions

shaped by the

con tempo

rary

society. * )

A

possib le re

ason

for t

he

lack

of

a dominan

t

stylistic

sys

tem today i

s

that

, whi le

older

m

odes

of

v isu

a l percept io n

have b roken

d

own, no def

inite new m

anner of

percept ion,

however p lu

ral ist ic, has

yet

developed

in

the

advan

ced industr

ial

societies. Instead, a negative

cond it ion

which I

w

il l

call perceptu l disori

entation

-a

ppears

t

o

have be

come preva l

ent

amon

g ar

t -us ing peop

le.

The quick variability

of

sty les sugge

sts

that, in s te

ad

of

havin

g our own

modes

of

perce

pt ion, we

must

still d

o

with

labor

atory

exercises in

perception

even

when we c

an, however

i n f requently

,

agree on ul t

imate va

lues). Perceptual

d isorientatio

n gives

priority

to

e

xper imenta l

novel ty ov

e r

the

per fe

ct ion

of

an

a

rtistic

statement.

Since it

is imposs

ible, in

th

e

absence

of de

finite modes

of

percept

ion, even

to

fe e l

intuitively what

artistic

statements

shou ld

be like, it is

impossib le

a lso

to

judg

e

ho

w w

ell they are

expressed.

Hence,

tend

encies

to

re

ject

crite

ria of q

uality in

art

cr iticism,

possib ly a reduced

capacity

to

appre

ciate dif feren

ces in

q

uality.

Perc

eptual

d

isorientation

lea

ves

on

ly

phy

sical sensa t

ion unques tio

ned.

One

possib le ex

planat ion of

perceptual

d isorient

ation m

i

g

ht b

e

to

v

iew it is as

a

co

nsequence o

f

identity

dif f

usion

an

uncertainty about

t he nature of

one s o

wn

pers

onal ity . Ident

i

ty

d iffus io

n has tended

to

o

ccur in other

per iods of

psycho·

cultural d iscont in u ity that

is, in periods

of r

apid change

and societa

l cr is is, suc

h

as

the

la te Rom

an Emp i re, the

century

p

reced ing

t

he Reform

at ion

, and

th

e ag

e

of

Romantici

sm. B

ut, judgin

g

from the

evi

dence

o

f v is

ual

art

from those

per iod

s ,

de

finite perce

ptual

st

ru c tu

res appear to

have remain

ed avai lable

then, s they

are not tod

ay.

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KAVOLIS, Vytautas. on the Crisis of Creativity in Contemporary Art

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