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How should we look at past art movements?
The history of art, I’ve said before, is a lot like Hegel’s synthesis.
You get your thesis, which is the prevailing style.
You get your antithesis, which is the experimental art.
Then, adding those together, you get a new art style for the present moment.
Take film movements like German Expressionism and French New Wave.
Cinephiles may be able to rattle off the names of great and obscure works in these periods, but they are largely unknown to many of us.
Still, consider how they informed the art of film for the broader culture, influencing other filmmakers and their styles.
And so it is with all art movements.
The Impressionists were reacting to the realism of the time.
The Cubists were reacting to the naturalism of the Impressionists.
And so on.
But how much should an artist be restrained by their predecessors?
How much should they be influenced by them?
Take, for example, the Abstract Expressionists.
They were reacting to the realism of the time.
