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| Goat: A magnificient product of the relationship between humans and nature Water Color Painting © 2013 by Russet Jennings, Northwood, NH (used with the permission of the artist) |
Until the ’60s, the history of western art was presented to us by the
cultural elite as an evolution from primitive to modern along a single path, each
stage making incremental progress toward some shining destination representing
ultimate reality.
Dante was among the first to see that this was no longer the case and
in 1986 wrote his famous essay proclaiming The
End of Art.[1]
“By this he meant not that people would stop making art, but that the
idea of art progressing and evolving over time along one clear path, as it
seemed to have done from the Renaissance through the late 19th century and into
the first post-World War II decade, could no longer be supported by art of the
late 20th century. After the ’60s, art had splintered and gone off in a
multitude of directions, from Photorealist painting to the most abstruse forms
of Conceptualism.[2]”
I see his essay as a major cultural turning point. From this point
forward, art can no longer be defined as having a reality separate from the
viewer. It can no longer stand on its own. Instead, art becomes defined as a
relationship: art becomes a representation of reality as understood by the
viewer: a relationship not an entity.
This week appears to be a week for me to talk
about endings: The end of Arthur Danto, the end of art, and, even, the end of
nature.
I came across a conversation in the current Orion
Magazine[3] by
William Cronon and Michael Pollan entitled, Out
of the Wild, where they talk about the end of nature in the same manner as
Dante did about art. Just as in art, we can no longer view nature as a pristine
wilderness, separate from humankind.
This thesis was first put forward by Bill
McKibben in 1989 in his book aptly named, The
End of Nature.[4]
In it he describes nature as a force previously independent of humans but which
is now increasingly driven by the actions of people. His book is considered to
be the first book about global warming written for a general audience:
"If the waves crash up against the beach, eroding dunes and
destroying homes, it is not the awesome power of Mother Nature. It is the awesome power of Mother Nature as altered by the awesome
power of man, who has overpowered in a century the processes that have been
slowly evolving and changing of their own accord since the earth was
born."[3]
McKibben’s point is well taken about the dangers of global warming
and how humans are complicit. But, on the larger point, humans and nature have
never been separate from one another: we have always been in relationship with her,
not as some privileged demi-god ordained by heaven to have dominion over nature
as the Bible proclaims but as one humble component among a multitude, all participating
in Nature’s all-encompassing majesty.
It’s the same with art: each of us has a relationship with art, not just
because we are privileged enough to be part of a cultural elite who has
appointed itself the anointed gatekeepers as to what is art and what is not,
but, more broadly we have a relationship with art, simply because we are human
beings, each pulsating with native creative energy.
If only we could cleanse our perception by casting off the
smothering blanket of our socially constructed blinders, we would see the world
as it really is, “a common language of symbols arising from body and mind of
Earth.”[5]
[1] http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13226-8/
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/arts/design/arthur-c-danto-a-philosopher-of-art-is-dead-at-89.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131028
[3]
Orion Magazine, November/December 2013, pp 66-67
[4] http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Nature-Bill-McKibben/dp/0812976088
[5] http://www.chalquist.com/earthrising.html
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