on art:

As a way of expressing a society’s views on the world, and the direction that a people seem to be heading in, the arts are an extremely useful tool. The art produced by a community speaks infinitely as to the ideas and statutes they hold as valuable, and the way they see all other parts of the world. As humanity has moved from the “modern” mindsets beginning in the 1600’s to the “postmodern” mindsets of today, the art has equally followed suit. With the “modern” way of thinking, art was predictable, and people had a fairly good idea what to expect as far as the messages that the art portrayed. People painted biblical scenes, beautiful scenery, and realistic portraits of real, living people. Thought was for the most part objective, and this could be seen in the art that people produced.

Lately (lately being in the last 50 years or so) a change has taken place. No longer is truth quite so objective, at least according to popular train of thought. To much of the world, truth is now seen as subjective – that which is experienced by the individual. And, as individual experiences vary to every opposite extreme, so do our truths.

In Paris, this contrast of ideas on the nature of truth can be seen through the architecture that has been produced over the last few centuries. From the “pre-modern” and “modern” time periods you see the buildings beautifully constructed with great attention to detail, but which continue to be fairly predictable, at least from the standpoint of architecture and design. Through buildings like the Notre Dame Cathedral (largely finished by the 14th century, with later additions completed in the mid-19th century) and the Arc de Triomphe (finished in 1836) we can see a mindset that was fairly straightforward. The truth of the people at the time was based on logic and objective rationale, and thus their artistic construction of buildings was grand and very beautiful, but also quite logical.

Contrasted with these more logical forms of art in the form of architecture are the more “post-modern” constructions that can be seen in buildings like the famous glass pyramid at the Louvre, and the Grande Arche de la Defense (also known as the Grand Arche, or the Cube). These buildings communicate a mindset that is still committed to the construction of something that is grand and beautiful; but, as the buildings constructed do not follow a logical train of thought, they seem to attempt to give a new meaning to what is grand and what is beautiful. Specifically with the Grand Arch, it was specifically constructed to that is was just slightly off-kilter from the Axe Historique (Historic Axis), an eight kilometer stretch running from the glass pyramid at the Louvre along the av de Champs-Elysees, through the Arc de Triomphe and finally to the Grand Arch, which is said to symbolize “an open window to the world.” This seems to allude to the idea that perhaps now man is moving in a new direction, and can make up truth, beauty, grandeur, and even reality for himself.

Through it would appear on the outside, with our massive buildings and chic architecture that man is progressing towards something “bigger” and “better,” we as humans are still plagued with the same ills and difficulties as we were in centuries long ago. No matter how big our buildings, no matter how abstract our art, no matter how many new directions we attempt to walk in, as humans we will always be in need of something more. Fortunately, God saw it fit to give us an opportunity to fulfill this need, through a sacrifice of Himself. In Christ, we have no need to create a new reality for ourselves, as we can know that Jesus Christ Himself is reality (Colossians 2:17) and He is a reality that will never leave us in need of or wanting something more (John 4:14.) Perhaps once we begin to address the bigger issues of neediness, rather than constructing fancier buildings and more controversial art, we will really begin to see progress, towards something that really matters.

It’s the 21st century, but where are we going?

(Looking along the Axe Historique, from the Arc de Triomphe to the Grande Arche de la Defense)

(the Notre Dame Cathedral)

(Arc de Triomphe)

(The Grande Arche de la Defense, with other more recent contructions)

(we had our problems then)

(we have our problems now)

(humanity is needy)