3.2 Art as a Challenger of Perspective

How does art both challenge and reflect cultural perspectives?

En quoi les arts à la fois défient-ils et reflètent-ils les perspectives culturelles?

Street art, Morocco Image from scenearabia.com

Art influences society by challenging opinions, translating experiences across space and time, but also promoting shared values. At a time when youth culture controls the world, these public art exhibits invite the observer to consider the importance of these two old men. 

Hommage à Leonard Cohen - Street art in Montréal Québec Image from tripadvisor.com

Art encourages us to value our creativity and to search constantly for new ideas. Artists 🎨 often aim to break rules and find unorthodox ways of approaching contemporary issues. In fact, the impressionist movement (19th century France) emerged from artists who did just this: 

"Radicaux à leur époque, les premiers impressionnistes ont violé les règles de la peinture académique...Ils ont également peint des scènes réalistes de la vie moderne, et souvent peint à l’extérieur, englobant ce que ses adhérents soutenaient était une manière de voir différente" (hisour.com)

Monet Impressionisme: Soleil levant (Image from wikipedia.org)

What was once outrageous 😲 to both Parisian society and the art world is now appreciated by art aficionados all over the world 🌍 Paintings of everyday people and objects may seem normal or even boring to us today, but in the 1850s, art was for the privileged few. Impressionist artists like Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, and Morisot portrayed the lives of the working and growing middle-class and made appreciation of art accessible to all. By defying established standards of the art world, these artists created new standards for beauty and an appreciation of everyday life through art.

Renoir, Déjeuner des canotiers (1881) (Image from wikipedia.org)

The impressionists weren't the only group to challenge ideals of beauty. In fact, every major art movement questions the aesthetic of the preceding movements. This is true of all forms of art. One could say that the role of art is, precisely, to both reflect and challenge cultural norms. 

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