The art of decadence
Date
1983
Authors
Simpson, Roger
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Abstract
This thesis attempts to outline some of the relationships, historical and modern, between conceptions of art production and ideologies of social change. These phenomena are examined in terms of their relationship to both the decay of traditional European culture and to the industrial civilization that has replaced it.
Art is examined according to its social function (as opposed to an aesthetic approach) and so 1 t has been necessary to distinguish between attitudes towards art production in traditional and modern society. The subject of art, then, has been subdivided according to perceived social function into 'art' and 'Fine Art'.
The idea of 'art', or material social production, is discussed in the context of the European guild system, and includes arguments on the social nature of creativity, the inherently social focus of traditional cultural production and the possible values to the individual member of society of such an approach. The resistance of traditional art to radical social change (discussed in terms of utopianism) is also examined.
'Fine Art', or art that does not serve a traditional social function, 1s seen as an approach to art aimed at reinforcing a particular form of elite class status upward social mobility. In this sense, the nature of the class patronizing art at a given time is considered to be as significant as the art itself. Therefore, considerable attention is given to the nature of the art market at selected points in post-Renaissance European history.
The paper concludes with a brief study of advertising, that medium that is considered most directly linked to revolutionary social philosophy.