First World War: 1914 – 1918. 16 Million dead
Second World War: 1938 – 1945. 50 to 85 Million dead.
Death, devastation, and repression were the bread and butter for many years in Europe and abroad. This loss of humanity, hope, and happiness led artist to see a black, broken, and bloody reality. Braque, Bourgeois, Dali, Duchamp, Picasso, …. all created their own parallel universes through art. An explosion on creativity, where they, and millions others, controlled their own view of a world in pieces.
The western societies have not gone through any major threats to humanity in the last 70 years. There have been wars, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, … but we have been careful to keep them far from our reach, where only those brave (or naive) enough go. This prosperity is opening the way for conversations on #metoo, #backlivesmatter, social inequality, … But no conversation about parallel realities, no outbreak of intrinsic creativity, no real need for art; just of pleasure.
If philosophy prospers with peace and fortune, art, on the contrary, fades.
Reflection of visit to Museo Reina Sofia.
Madrid Jan 8th, 2018