The Spiritual in Art
Many of the artistic and literary movements have had at their core a spiritual basis. Whether a positive one as in the case of the Pre-Rafaelites and their love of the detail of nature as an expression of the soul of man/the existence of God or in a bleaker way: the minimalists...depicting an oppressive and weighty emptiness...a cold domineering absence.
What causes the relationship?
Have artistic/musical/literary endevours become more mundane or somehow less effective with the decrease of spirituality?
(Note: By "spirituality" I mean everything from organized religion to Victorian "spiritualism" or superstition).
Re: The Spiritual in Art
RE "Have artistic/musical/literary endevours become more mundane or somehow less effective with the decrease of spirituality?":
I think the answer lies in the way people are "wired". What is a midlife crisis except an acknowledgement that there is something missing from the victim's life?
As artists of all stripes reach to define the missing elements, viewers/listeners/readers attempt to fit elements of that art into their lives.
Powerful art touches something in the audience. Sympathetic resonance (common experiences) can be strong, but I think the resonance of emptiness can be even stronger. The key to representing something that others are missing is to believe it so strongly that the POSITIVES come across through the art as with your example of the "Pre-Rafaelites and their love of the detail of nature as an expression of the soul of man/the existence of God".
Re: The Spiritual in Art
I'm not sure if this is your point, but the topic made me think of the human need for faith in general, and that relationship to art.
I have come to the conclusion in the last couple of weeks that humans need faith and spirituality of some sort. We need it desperately. For those of us who have it, we have more peace and happiness. For those of us who don't, so we have more restlessness and emptiness. I'm not talking about anything organized or dictated either. Just some sort of faith - even faith that there is no god is something. I think we all have a need to believe in something that we cannot really prove - I think that's what's wired in us.
The reason I say all this is because of what's going on in my life right now. I've been without real faith for a long time. I have what I term my "system of belief" that I've sort of half-heartedly accepted over the years, but there was never anything I really, passionately believed. Lately, for lack of anything else, I've turned to the spiritual to find what I felt was missing. It worked. I think I've found something to believe in, something that resonates inside me as true regardless of whether I can prove it. It's a good thing, but it will take time for me to come to grips with really being a spiritual person again.
Now the connection with art:
For the artists here, I hope I am not alone in this. When there's a poem or a story brewing I know it. I feel it. It's like a distant drumbeat or the sound of waves in a sea shell. I feel a bit nauseated and dizzy, not something concrete, just little hints of it. It's a very physical thing. Well that's been going on for days (and no, I don't have anthrax). I'm getting ready to write again, write like I haven't written in years. I can feel it coming - it's almost scary because it just might be the release of three and a half years of pent-up creativity and inspiration - three and a half years of almost no writing at all. But it's exciting and wonderful too - I can't wait to see what happens.
I've been trying to figure out the why for all this. Why now? Why am I now feeling this inspiration to create when I've been without it for so long? I can only find one connection: faith. About four years ago I did have faith. And I lost it. Then I stopped writing. Now, I am learning faith again, and I just know I'm going to start writing again. I'll always allow for the possibility that I'm wrong, but I really don't think so. I look back on the last few years of my life and I can see only two constants - I've had no faith and I've felt creatively stifled - unable to write. I just don't believe it's coincidence.
Again, I'm not suggesting that we all go out and start thumping our bibles. I don't even like organized religion - I think it's responsible for the worldwide subjugation of women for the last 2000 years (but that's a soapbox I won't jump on right now). But I really think that humans need faith of some sort - I think it's an essential part of our mental health and growth as people. And I don't think artists even can create, at least not to their potential, without it.
Quote: Why am I now feeling this inspiration to create when I've been without it for so long? I can only find one connection: faith. About four years ago I did have faith. And I lost it. Then I stopped writing. Now, I am learning faith again, and I just know I'm going to start writing again.
Could it be that I have been going through a similar valley for a similar reason?
Wanderer Registered User
Posts: 3
(11/2/01 11:17 am) Reply
Re: The Spiritual in Art
I think this question must be considered historically. Our culture is the product of an artistic tradition that was intrinsically connected to religious doctrine. As empiricism, positivism and existentialism emerged, the flesh replaced the spirit as the object of artistic fascination. The mind began to be explored as a physical machine, and perception itself became an object to be manipulated. (I noticed this to be true in your own work, Nous--and, may I say, I think you're "chalk and charcoal on paper" are quite effective.)
Of course, there is still religious art. Post-modern culture refuses to throw away historical relics, even if they contradict other existing paradigms. Contradiction itself is dismissed as a play of perception and imagination. Paradox is entertainment.
So, to address your question, Nous: What caused the change and is art suffering because of it? Well, I don't know if I can get into what I think caused the changes right now--I'd have to think about that one a bit. But I do think art is suffering. I think censorship is the main problem, and censorship seems to come mostly from dying religious paradigms.
I think you alluded to a distinction between being "spiritual" and having an explicit religious paradigm. Indeed, in my own life, I like to use the word, "spiritual," though I never mean anything supernatural or metaphysical. I think of "spirit" as creative energy, as attitude and motivation--spirit, for me, is physical. Good art is always spiritual, regardless of whether there is an explicit religious paradigm involved. The fact that great art in the past was explicitly religious is more evidence of the dominant power structures than it is evidence for a higher level of creativity. It is ironic that the idols that guided the production of the Sistine Chapel are now being used to hinder the evolution of art.
I agree with the point made by fluttersby: when we no longer have faith in the process of expression, our creative energy becomes inhibited. The worst kind of censorship occurs when we are led to believe that our expression is meaningless and without value. I think of spirituality as the moving force which guides us in the act of creation. That force requires that we have faith in the meaningfulness and value of our expression. Perhaps the ideas of gods were originally celebrations of expression itself.
Edited by: Wanderer at: 11/2/01 1:25:24 pm
Re: The Spiritual in Art
So are we talking something ethereal or something a little more grounded as Wanderer suggests, "creative energy"?
Jon369 Registered User
Posts: 3
(11/26/01 7:05 am) Reply
Re: The Spiritual in Art
I don't know if I'd agree with you on the proposition of a decline in spirituality. I think its simply become very pluralistic and simultaneously, much more rational. For instance, a portion of the third guideline, from the Unitarian Universalist belief structure, states:
"The ultimate arbiter in any religion is not a church, or a document, or an official, but the personal choice and decision of the individual." -David O. Rankin
In this sense of spirituality, those who find unusual ways to relate to higher power, still carry religious authority. This lends itself to a wide range of voices in the normal congregation’s composition.
The mesh, found in plurality's nexus, holds cupped, convection to be harnessed. Providing then, a thought's momentum.
Re: The Spiritual in Art
To me, it almost seems that freedom from "religion" has become its own religion. In a lot of modern artistic venues, the creative work we're faced with almost seems inspired by nothing. Within this hollow, undefined inspiration, thrives a kind of art form that is utterly unique in a historical sense. But this doesn't mean we can't relate to it. I'm a Christian, but I don't feel my beliefs really hinder me from doing what I like artistically. Yes there are certain things I would never do, but that isn't because my "religion" bars me from doing so--it's because I don't have an INTEREST in doing so. I don't think the core of it is about a set of restrictions that are meant to limit our range of experiences and abilities. On the contrary, I think these restrictions are very liberating in the sense that you have what you need, spiritually, and everything else is an offshoot of that. I am certain I can do whatever I like with my skills as a creator of art. Whether or not my specific beliefs directly influence it doesn't really matter. I think it has more to do with the personality of the artist and what s/he values in life. For instance, I have a high regard for simple life experiences, for people and their basic needs, for saying something through art when really saying nothing at all. Conveying this through art may not be my goal when creating something, but either way part of it will carry through and hopefully affect the viewer/listener/reader. Also, the effect being positive or negative doesn't matter as much as the presence of the effect in the first place. These are just some of my thoughts.
It seems you are short a few posts! Did "Sleazyboard" eat your password?
I'm actually in agreement with Alfreda L's post above. Although I am not religious, I find myself attracted to that which arches its fingers in desire for something outside of itself. As a friend of mine once said, I do believe that:
There is SOMETHING
And, that SOMETHING is gracious.
I try to hold a desire for that "grace" in the process of making so that perhaps, even if in small ways, it might be reflected in the eye of the viewer.
Registered User
Posts: 4
(11/28/01 10:07 pm) Reply
Re: The Spiritual in Art Nous
I guess I lost my count when I went Global. Went lurking around some of the other boards.
I don't really think I'm talented but what little bit I do have was given, this board is the first time I have ever publicly attempted anything "artistic" or even cared enough to ask questions. For the record I also consider myself a Christian (ever striving, far from perfect).
dharma explorer
Posts: 224
(11/28/01 10:17 pm) Reply
You're too modest Keld, I'm very glad you decided to share your haiku with us. I don't think you realize just how talented you are. Anyone who can knock out perfect 2-3-2 like you can is well above average in the talent department.
Yep.....I'm jealous.
Harmonic Registered User
Posts: 5
(1/17/02 9:23 pm) Reply
Re: You're too modest
hmmm... after reading all of ths all i think is that im in way over my head with this crowd. i dont know exactly what it is, but art and spirituallity are certainly tied, if not just different deffinitions of the same thing. i am a fallen christain. everything that brings me sustanence in art is of the dark side, and it is not a celebration of evil for me, but a feeling of "knowing whats missing" as said above.
If you feel that you have gotten in over your head with this board, join the club.
I would be happy to be identified as the inspiriation for any of their work, but at the same time am willing to use conversations within this group to help focus my inner self at the same time.
Re: The Spiritual in Art
Ask yourself not, "why so little 'spirituality'" (an over-abused word in its own right), but rather ask yourself "why so little politicality"--i.e., why a weakened desire to see the social become artistic and the artistic become social.
Re: The Spiritual in Art
Hello everyone! Its been ages since I've been on board and I miss you all! I am currently in London getting my Art & Archaeology Masters degree and loving it. Finally got myself a laptop and decided to pop in. Been reading through these discussions, and what Wanderer said really blew me away. Especially :
I think of spirituality as the moving force which guides us in the act of creation. That force requires that we have faith in the meaningfulness and value of our expression. Perhaps the ideas of gods were originally celebrations of expression itself.
Wow, what a thought! We created the idea of god to reflect our own genius of self-expression and self-validation! Its not we exist because god made us, rather, god made us because we exist! The creative impulse that brews inside our spirit, mind, soul, brain, heart, whatever-you-wanna-call-it, is like a prowling wizard/wolf that transforms its surroundings into delicious fruits of meaning.
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