Art on the Rebound

The Western world is in a metaphysical crisis. Reductionism disenfranchised Occidental philosophy and the post-Kantian aesthetics of Modernism. Ideals and values once thought to be universal have been exposed as biased opinions of an oppressive social order. Cultural symbols such as the art object can no longer be seen as containing absolute value or intrinsic properties.

As the old and brittle myths of Western society are discredited, new symbols, rituals and historical revisions develop to take their place. The postmodern despiritualization of culture will prove to be the dialectic preface to a new empathetic movement in the arts. We are in a period just prior to a cultural revolution that will inspire symbolic experiences rivaling any in the 20th century. The longer the controlling ideology denies the inevitable truth that man is more than reason, the greater will be the rebound of transcendent aesthetics.

At the end of the current reductive phase in art, a revitalized-garde freed from the misconceptions of transcendental idealism, will explore art as a means to bring about social change. The elitist triad of artist, academy and art market will succumb to its own exclusivity as art regains revolutionary status as the cultural mediator of a burgeoning social order.

It is past time for a breach of the self-perpetuating nihilism that has become the main thrust of contemporary aesthetics. We need a belief system that recognizes the importance of the art encounter -- not based on outmoded ideals, but on the power of art as an actualizing force in society. In the aftermath of Modernism, a new aesthetic will arise to fulfill the inherent need for the iconic symbols and ontological truths of cultural mythology.