While these galleries make no claims at being all-inclusive of all of the wonderous and inspiring artwork out there in the world, they are made up of artwork which I have personally found to have elements that inspire and inform my own work. Some pieces are here because of their colors or their lines, others because of their execution or the way the artist captured a particular feeling or sensation.
I find the artwork of the early part of the 20th century to hold the most inspiration for me because it has a sense of exploration that, I think, was not seen in art since the Renaissance. The Renaissance brought about an unparalleled shift in artwork through the discovery of the perspective-based rendering and the dimensionalization of the subject. Much of the work up to the 20th century built on this approach but it wasn't until the modern era (post 1890) that art again took a radical shift in approach.
The modern era of art, from Symbolism to Cubism to Futurism to Surrealism, largely resulted from the invention of the camera, which helped to free the artist from the bondage of having to recreate reality as it was seen (and as was taught by the academies) and instead allowed him/her to create reality as it was felt. This significant and important shift allowed the artist could to explore color, line, shape and light and their relationships both to themselves and the viewer in a whole new way. This new art based itself on psychological underpinnings, deeper spiritual yearnings and the spontaneous arising of creative energies.
Today we have, in the world of Contemporary Art, countless off-shoots from those explorational beginnings. Unfortunately, it seems much of the deeper spiritual signifigance of the artwork and it's process has been exchanged for a more pained and somewhat sickened commoditization of the art process itself that seems to endlessly repeat the same approach, process and materials. Perhaps this is similar to the slough that resulted as the high Rennaissance passed into history.
Thankfully, on the fringes of todays Contemporary Art, we find truly inspired work. The Visionary and Outsider Art movements find their roots in some of the artwork presented here not because they seek in any way to usurp the styles of these masters but instead because they seek to continue the lineage of personal and spiritual exploration begun decades and centuries ago. In this way, we are always merely picking up the story where others left off.
These Galleries pay homage to some of the artists who stepped into the new world of art that opened up post-1890/industrial revolution.
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