During liberal upheaval, art is often so damn good. It has energy. It is young, muscular and demands color and attention. Even if a piece (any kind of piece) is not about the political movement, for it to survive during a strong time of changing energy, it must include this vector of jagged lightning.
During conservative periods, there is a lot of remake and pastiche. It becomes very academic. People feel safe. The rules are in place. Progress is glacial. MFA adjudicators make choices that reflect their personal tastes while declaring the importance of this or that piece with respect to “What is happening today,” or “Its place in the historical dialogue.” This is tired but it is valid since during conservative periods, people are more apt to slow down and think a little bit. Reflection isn’t a bad thing, but minds in reflection lack a beat. And you can feel it. It can leave you in your head and unsatisfied.
Ideally, one would live and create in a moderate society, with quick cycling fluctuations between liberal explosion and measured conservatism, at least in art. It would be thrilling to burst, rest, burst, rest. But societies have other ideas. In order to reach across continents, oceans and resistant minds, the sine waves of cultural environmental change often require a wavelength between fifteen and fifty years.
Fascinating are the people who start the upheaval at the end of a conservative era. I think we are in that period. It is time to take the youth seriously.
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