It's Tasty (2022) Tekening door Edwin Loftus

This image depicts Adam and Eve's famous choice to defy God and eat fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Lucifer in the form of a serpent, watches from a tree nearby. A pair of dogs eye Lucifer suspiciously while a pair of Megatheriums, (Giant Ground Sloths) pass slowly by in the background.
This seminal moment in the Biblical account of human history sets up everything that is to follow and there are literally too many implications, elements and potential disputes about its meaning to list in a few paragraphs.
In this depiction we see Adam considering whether he will join Eve in her rebellion. He chose to take a bite and thereby established humanity's ability to understand abstract issues and our freedom to choose our responses in life. In Christianity, this entails the need for redemption, but also, whether we will refrain from doing things we recognize as not "good" or give in to the temptations or opportunities that lead to such things.
The source we have for this tale is ancient Hebrew lore and that implies it may well have been part of ancient Canaanite and general Levantine lore.
A traditional role of art has been to present images of or based on important ideas, thereby acting as a stimulant to thought on these topics. That continues to be a goal of nonrepresentational art as well. What, why and how art is created generally determines its form or often, the material artifacts of the process of creation.
So, for art to be properly appreciated, how it is displayed and made available is a critical element. In the case of most art we are all familiar with, it is through seeing them in museums, photos of them and most recently, photos on the internet. If you are a genius, art historian and student of history, philosophy, theology, psychology and a dozen or more other disciplines, brief studies like these media afford may be sufficient. But odds are a thousand or more to one that this won't be the case for the next person to view a particular work of art.
To study, analyze, and be informed about a work of art requires prolonged and repeated opportunities to view and think about it and notice how one's thoughts evolve over time. Personal ownership and display of originals is the best way to do this and fortunately, artistic ability is not as rare as the ability to understand art at a glance.
Governments, NGOs and enlightened citizens have made many efforts to "make art available to the people." Most of these efforts succeed, but inadequately for the plastic arts to achieve anything like their probable potential for enrichening and enlightening the lives of most people. The exception probably being the commercial arts. I believe that at this time, the most important artists in the world today are the designers of clothing, product appearance, buildings and public spaces, television commercials and open-air advertisements. These are the artworks people see repeatedly, the art works that have the most opportunity to shape their views and ways of seeing things. Unfortunately, the primary shaping factor in most of these arts is selling something, so whatever additional intellectual or emotion provoking elements they have exist secondary to the need to sell something.
So, art is a conundrum. We want it, we may need it, but we can't afford it and artists can't afford to produce it.
I think it is one of those telltales about our civilization. Until we solve the problem of artistic talent as a wasted resource, civilization has or will hit a dead end. But whether that failure is a cause or a symptom of that dead end ... I have no idea.

Verwante thema's

AdamEveTemptationLuciferRebellion