By: Titus Fojtik
(I do not own the rights to this image; all credit goes to Chris Madden Cartoons — A searchable archive for licensing. This cover image was paid to be used for personal blog use.)
With the rise in socially conservative trends (IE, “Trad Wife Culture”) on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, these traditional safe havens for art and expression are becoming more controversial, with internet liberal users reacting back with progressive trends. These two reactions are starting to clash with each other, but it seems that reactionary conservatism has won, both politically and culturally. Whether media is tainted with the ever-vague label of ‘woke’ (like The Boys Season 4’s backlash), or the Trump administration cutting library and museum funding because it is seen as ‘wasteful spending’ (by Elon Musk and DOGE), conservatism and anti-intellectualism have won within established discussions when talking about any art piece. Convenience is becoming more prevalent, with the introduction of AI threatening multiple artists’ careers. A majority of American adults read at an 8th-grade level. Art, for many, is a status symbol granted to a specific artwork to grant it some ‘legitimacy’ for people. It is meant to serve as a gatekeeping definition that defines what is and isn’t art, and diminishes abstract paintings instead of realistic portraits. Robert Florczak, professional artist and speaker for PragerU, stated that “art, by definition, is a visual medium”, and that meaning is “secondary” to how the art piece looks. This classist status has been given light to countless artworks, such as the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa, created by Leonardo da Vinci, is widely regarded as one of the most renowned artworks in human history, and given the status of ‘proper’ art due to its realistic portrayal of Lisa Gherardini (a Florentine wife of a silk maker). However, what most people forget to realize is that the Mona Lisa only gained significance within mass culture after it was stolen from the Louvre on August 21, 1911. The definition of how a specific artwork becomes popular over time will always be abstract, as paintings throughout most of ancient history had been commissioned by those of higher nobility and class.
Before we continue, there must be two definitions set up in this section to distinguish what we will be talking about. Modern art, per se, has been the term that the majority of people have used to describe art they dislike, or already existing art. This misused term fails to establish the difference between Contemporary and Modern Art. So what is the difference? Modern Art, or Modernism, was a “rejection” of “conservative values”, and instead focused on abstract or experimental art. It also showed utopian ideals about humanity and society as a whole. Contemporary Art, on the other hand, is already existing art that is currently being made and encompasses a wide range of different artistic mediums. Modernism has already happened, so to speak, it is just the term used by most art historians to describe that period of art creation (Late 19th-Early 20th Century). Post-Modernism also emerged within the late 20th century, but again, gets confused with Modernism. Post-Modernism was a reaction against Modernist utopian ideals and focused on “skepticism” of Western principles. Modernism and Post-Modernism can be lumped in with criticisms about Contemporary Art since their descriptions go against more conservatively accepted pieces of art. However, Romantic, Impressionist, and Neoclassical pieces (to name just a few) are still being created, and Contemporary Art is just the broad umbrella of art still being created. This article will be covering Contemporary Art, not just Modern or Post-Modern art.
So what is ‘good’ art? At the end of the day, art is a subjective idea, but to me, if it can effectively convey a point of view or message, or it can strike an emotion in the person viewing the artwork, and also created by a human (not AI), that is art. Art is a visual metaphor, just as novels have different meanings than only the words printed on the page. However, unless we meet the specific artist or writer in person, we can never truly figure out what their specific message is. In essence, The Artist is Absent. Ian Danskin, a colloquial breadtuber (IE; leftist YouTuber), correctly pointed out how a writer uses language that we use and understand in our daily lives to convey an idea, but how that idea can never be telepathically transmitted over to someone else. If I had been describing a tree and its outer rough bark, or the way the sap oozed from the tree, the viewer (the other person in the conversation) would always have a different interpretation of that tree. We can, however, make inferences about what the art could be conveying. Art has no specific set-in-stone definition, unlike biology or science. Art is always a changing idea, and with that, it evolves with the society it is currently coexisting with.
There are always viral TikToks or Reels dunking on contemporary art pieces, with the comments section generally saying that ‘they could’ve made that. ’ For Yves Klein’s piece Blue Monochrome, this was no different. TikToker jesshealeypriv🚀🚀 created a video with over 31.6 million views and 5.7 million likes, with the text “i HATE modern art” displayed as she walks next to Blue Monochrome with a disinterested face. Blue Monochrome on the surface seems just to be an ordinary blue canvas. However, like all art, there was a deeper meaning behind Blue Monochrome. Yves Klein created Blue Monochrome with the special help of a chemist and created a new color not found before Klein’s painting was created, a revolutionary scientific discovery. jesshealeypriv🚀🚀’s criticism, and other contemporary art critics, make broad and reductive sweeping generalizations. A picture or video of an artwork could never capture its essence unless you had gone to see it in person. Art must be contextualized, or at least, the viewer must know what the art piece is rather than just being brushed off. These art ‘critics’ overdramatize contemporary art into something it simply isn’t.
These broad sweeping generalizations lead to ignorance amongst the general public and allow reactionaries to take advantage of that discomfort. Fascists always go after artists and creatives; they ban books because it makes people think for themselves rather than being sold a narrative that fits a hyper-conservative, ultranationalist, and theocratic agenda. This isn’t to argue that criticism of contemporary art is, inherently, fascist, but it is something that can be harnessed to fuel rage at a perceived and demonized ‘other’. A valid criticism of Jackson Pollock that I would agree with is that his art was funded by the CIA to dispel Soviet murals or Socialist Realist sculptures. It is important to know where a specific artist's ideals lie. However, it is important to distinguish a genuinely insightful criticism, versus one that is meant to invoke rage against a ‘degenerating’ culture. Fascists position themselves as populists, when in reality, they are authoritarians who will go through any means to further their hatred in existing government institutions. Neo-Nazi and Far-Right groups have successfully infiltrated social media algorithms like Youtube or Instagram to cater to their hateful ideology. What makes social media so appealing to fascists is that it can be used to interpret pieces of media for the viewer without the viewer watching or being in the presence of that specific artistic media. AI writing does the thinking for the high school students who use it for convenience, without them having to think about what they wrote for their essay. AI has the dangerous implications of having implicit bias being trained from racist algorithms. Art, and any form of artistic creation, directly challenges that. Art is being suppressed because it challenges people to think.
In an age of declining media literacy, combating these ‘brain-rotting’ assumptions that people hold about our modern world is crucial. Art is just one facet of these ongoing attacks on creativity. It is even more concerning that Donald Trump is increasingly promoting rhetoric against immigrant and trans communities in America while actively deploying police and ICE to arrest protesters (IE, Rumeysa Ozturk) and undocumented immigrants who make up a significant portion of the currently existing agricultural workforce. Fascism has been enshrined into America’s institutions (or has existed since its inception, but that’s a discussion for another time ;) ). Before you use AI, ask yourself: Would it be better if I engaged in critical thinking rather than relying on someone else to define that concept for me?