Arts in the Context of Globalization: A Review of Four Collections

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The arts, as Charles Bukowski said, "are not at the periphery of our existence but are rather at the very heart of it.. An artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way." Some would argue the contrary. According to Francis Bacon, "The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." Either way, works of art are major contributors to the progress of civilization at both the level of the individual and the community. Four recent collections, those of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Alfredo Jaar, and the Medici and Leonardo da Vinci Collections, all displayed recently in major museums, bring to life the role of the arts in the context of globalization.

The objective of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose work was displayed recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, is to express the paradox that while time is a concrete measure of our existence, we experience the passage of time subjectively. The photographs depicted the interior and exteriors of several well-known buildings, including the Eiffel Tower, the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, and the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao and New York. Trhough Sugimoto's photographs I was able to see the buildings as works of pure art and beauty, which represented a dreamlike environment as they were shot out-of-focus. The absence of people in the photographs gave me a sense of experiencing the effect of the structures at a very personal level. The most memorable aspect was the representation of light in the photographs. The gallery was very well designed with freestanding walls that accentuated each photograph, while also enabling the viewer to see a larger display of several rows or columns from different angles. As a result, Sugimoto augmented the relationship between an individual and his or her surroundings. He appended a deeper sense of insight and meaning to structures that otherwise might have simply appeared as functional edifices. In this case, the artist deepens the mystery.

The exhibit of mixed media artist Alfredo Jaar, in the same museum, consisted of several 55-gallon barrels of oil placed in a grid and filled with water. The barrels were positioned below a lowered ceiling of backlit pictures, which could be seen only through their reflections in the water. The pictures depicted an environmental disaster in Koko, a port town in southwestern Nigeria. During 1987-88, five Italian tankers carrying barrels of toxic waste arrived at Koko, where several farmers had agreed to store them for $100 a month. Although the barrels were marked with the international symbol of danger (skull and cross bones) the farmers emptied some barrels and used them for construction while other barrels exploded in the heat. The poisonous contents seeped into the water system. This situation primarily occurred due to the desperate poverty of some who were exploited by the rich. To me, a first glance at the barrels in the exhibit conveyed a sense of a budding economy. As I got closer and could see the reflections in the barrels, I immediately was aware of the injustice that lay behind the scenes. Jaar works in all of his pieces very thoughtfully to convey genuine problems affecting society. In this case the artist brought out deep rooted and complex issues affecting society to the masses through a very simple demonstration.

The Medici family, based in Florence, Italy, gained tremendous wealth during the 13th century through banking and commerce. With this wealth came political influence, and soon a member of the family served as the gonfaliere, or standard-bearer of Florence. The Medici, Michelangelo, and Late Renaissance Florence exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago displayed the collections of the Medici family, and provided a glimpse into the art and culture of Florence during the times of the first Medici dukes, who employed Michelangelo and several other artists who in turn created everlasting masterpieces. The exhibition consisted of over 200 paintings, sculptures, porcelain, tapestries, amours, and medals. Many of the artifacts had never traveled out of Florence, including some works by Michelangelo, Francesco I, and paintings from the famous Uffizi and Pitti Galleries. The Medici family was trying to provide means for people to investigate and analyze art through their collections. A part of this collection was seen several hundred years later in Chicago by me, a college student, and it helped me discover many aspects relating to the history, culture, and lifestyle that prevailed during that time in Europe. This collection of art served as a tool in providing a broad picture of the history and culture of a time long gone.

Gaining a sense of the extensive role of art in society, it becomes progressively evident that works of art such as paintings portray effort on part of the artist conveying his or her feelings. Collections such as a recent one on "Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York brought together paintings of a generation that provided a unique sense of the progress Leonardo made throughout his lifetime, something he himself might not have been able to see. There were 118 Leonardo drawings on display-the largest collection of his works ever-with lenders such as the Louvre, the Vatican, and the Uffizi. The exhibition spoke of Leonardo's historical progress and cultural styles as an artist, in addition to his contributions as a theorist, a scientist, and a teacher.

In the words of contemporary Canadian painter Otto Donald Rogers, "art becomes in time a common experience of unity in the culture of a whole population." Art contributes to unity though it is one of the most diverse forms of expression. It has the ability to both express complex and deep-rooted feelings or issues in simplest terms. As a result, art has a tremendous ability to operate over the boundless range of simplicity and mystery. A painting may have as many meanings as the number of people observing it. It is for this reason that we are able to use art in every aspect of our lives ranging from proclamations of peace to designing buildings. Consider Chilean born Alfredo Jaar, who demonstrated to people of all nationalities in the United States through his art a crisis that affects people in a part of Nigeria. Art is worldwide in scope and application, and captivatingly the definition of globalization is "to make global or worldwide in scope or application." Hence if the aim is globalization, art is already there, and it can be used as a tool for the globalization of many other phenomena that are yet to reach that stage. It is important to remember here that globalization does not necessarily mean loss of originality or creativity; it is rather the extension of culture, economy, and government, among numerous other things to a wide-reaching stratum. Finally, many of the above-mentioned effects of art are primarily appreciated and studied when different forms of art are meticulously and carefully selected and presented together in a museum, or as part of a single priceless collection.

References:
1. Bahá'ís and the Arts: Language of the Heart. http://bahai.org/article-1-9-2-2.html
2. Bukowski, Charles. Notes of a Dirty Old Man. City Lights Books; 2nd edition (June 1981)
3. Francis Bacon Quotes: http://quotes.prolix.nu/Authors/?Francis_Bacon
4. Otto Donald Rogers, "The Moral Circumstance of Artistic Intent" (unpublished essay).
5. Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=globalization

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