Painting Traditional Art in the Modern World

A detail of a card I painted and gave to the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer

Over the weekend, I had the privilege of visiting a nice family after attending Holy Mass. As on any nice Sunday visit, we enjoyed each other’s company and conversation. At one point, the conversation turned to a topic that is near and dear to my heart - art. One person in the room said they had difficulty understanding why people find modern works, such as Picasso’s, appealing. That statement prompted me to write this blog post because I think this person's difficulty understanding modern art is one that many people share.

Art has been with us since the world began. For centuries, it’s been used to capture the essence of a moment, object, or person. It’s also been used as a means of communication and to show reverence for Almighty God. In modern times, it’s used to market products and as a form of expression. You may be wondering, hasn’t art always been expressive? Of course, it has, but modernity has changed the rules of artistic expression.

Artistic expression in medieval times, for example, is far different than today. Medieval art was primarily centred on the heavenly. Society was religious, and any expression that was made was made for the glory of God. An ugly, stark image would be not only unacceptable but downright blasphemous! Artistic expression looked upward, not inward. The medieval world was not devoid of self-concern; however, it was entirely ordered toward the salvation of one's soul.

As centuries progressed, we began to see the slow shift from the artist looking upward to the artist looking outward and then gradually inward. Subject matter started to look at the material world. Realistic depictions of the world in the Renaissance gave way to the emotional individual in the Romantic period. This movement was setting the stage for the unbridled self-expression of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Modernism began to surface in the late 19th century. It affected every area of society through its rejection of God, tradition and, quite frankly, morality. Man was no longer “shackled” to the rules of natural law. The individual’s subjective experience took centre stage, creating a dogma of self-assertion. This is why artworks like Picasso’s don’t make sense. The average person would need a manual on how to read another human being's subjective experience to even begin to appreciate the grotesque imagery that modernism thrusts upon us.

By now, I think it’s apparent as to why I choose to paint traditional art in the modern world. I see my art as an antidote to the rejection of Truth and beauty, and yes, that capital T is intentional. Truth is simple, direct, realistic, reasonable and beautiful. By reclaiming tradition in art, we are hitting the reset button on all that doesn’t make sense and embracing what does.

If you are an admirer of pre-modernist art, I’d like to know what art movement inspires you the most. Feel free to let me know in the comments.