Formulating behaviors through which the art of our century will move is not only pretentious, but especially useless. Art is to a great extent novelty and uncertainty, which makes it unpredictable and not very subject to divinatory conjectures.
On the other hand, it is increasingly complex to find a solid basis on which to define what is, or ceases to be, “art”. The artistic proposals of the past century have disrupted the old conceptions, and with it any notion and aesthetic definition. I remember in this respect the pragmatic definition given by a professor of art history during our years of study at the University: “Art is everything that man wants to call art”. It turns out that there is nothing that, objectively, can be called art, since every idea, every object, every act, is susceptible to being considered as such.
That said, it should be noted that, while the art of the avant-garde sought with emphasis to break with tradition, the result seems to be a complete submission to the tyranny of “novelty”, and a debate between the aggressive “ugliness” and a boring “beauty”, bordering on the trivial and kitschy. The vast majority of the supposed “novelties” that were intended to bring new perspectives and reinvent the world of art, have proved to be fleeting lights. It is therefore clear that the desire for immediacy, consumerism, “marketing”, “freedom above all”, is ultimately a strategy that was intended to maintain the ecosystem of art today, the “market”, rather than real renovations, because while “everything” can be the basis of an artistic approach, not “everything” is art, nor can it be considered as such, however much some people try.
So what is left for the art of the 21st century to do?
Everything points out that Science, Religion and Art, must form a unity, must grow and develop in the same direction: to create consciousness.
It is up to Science to analyze and rationalize the Universe and its components. It is up to Religion to reach, through “intuition” and “empathy” with everything created, the harmony that governs the Universe. The work of Art, for its part, should be directed towards addressing the “representation” and “recreation” of the Universe. Of course, “representing” the Universe should not be confused with reflecting, more or less faithfully, its aspects, whether through normal vision or with the help of the microscope or telescope.
To represent the Universe implies to grasp the laws by which matter is structured in forms, through creative imagination, to open new channels that allow those aspects of the Universal Consciousness that are not yet visible to be revealed. Recreating the Universe implies collaborating in the expression of the Universal Consciousness itself, in order to make manifest the infinite expressive possibilities of the divinity. That is why it remains for the art of our century to be itself.
We cannot, however, forget that the current artist is immersed in a convulsive time, where certain astral influences (such as those of the planet Pluto) are very strong. Pluto leads to the highest and lowest points that humanity can reach.
Pluto was discovered in 1930, three months after the great depression caused by the fall of the stock market. Until 2024, Pluto will be in Capricorn, a symbol of discipline and ambition. From that date on, it will enter the sign of Aquarius, which will close a cycle and mark the passage to a new one, where science and art will be key pieces for a new paradigm of knowledge.
The Plutonian forces make visible the necessary reforms prior to “enlightenment”. However, their influences cannot be managed or governed, they penetrate and shake, like turbulences and uncontrolled energies, acting through blows of fate, generally in a painful way. Pluto rules the masses and the subconscious mind, producing sweeping and drastic changes. Such influences are lived by the artist in a distressing way, and force him to reflect on the very human condition, to pour, through his art, all the bile he carries inside. They lead him, in short, to a deep cleansing, to highlight the problems and miseries of his inner world and the society in which he lives. Therefore, in the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, we find an art in which the testimony, the desperate shouting, the chaotic, the dark and rotten prevail, leaving aside the beauty and harmony, aspects favored by the astral currents coming from Venus.
In other historical periods, art acted as a revealer of spiritual forces that incarnated through it in matter. In our days, art has also fulfilled the mission of “revealing”, not spiritual forces, but the soul aspects of the human being and, unfortunately, too often, the ego aspects of the artist.
This does not mean that today we perceive an aspiration towards the highest ideals (as was the case with Greek art or Renaissance art); not even as an expression of the religious aspirations of the masses (the great majority of modern art could be described as “materialistic”), and even less as a means of spiritual elevation (as may have been the case with Egyptian art, the art expressed by the Freemasons of the Middle Ages, or Zen art). However, the Aquarian forces are already beginning to assert themselves, which will inevitably bring a new art whose foundations will again be based on universal aspects, such as beauty and harmony. This does not mean a return to the past, but a creative emergence that will not only take into account the body, but also aspects such as the soul and the spirit.
The work of art should be first of all “a space of consciousness”, the imprint in dense matter of a high thought and pure emotion, clothed in a beautiful form, so that, through the form, Life and Soul can be experienced.
Art, therefore, should aspire to ennoble those who contemplate it and “awaken” those who are still asleep. Therefore, one should avoid “junk” art, which pours into others the psychic detritus of the artist.
It is not possible, therefore, to conceive art as a simple decorative element, but rather as an extension of Life. Of course, in present society, with its cult of fleeting and transient things, hardly the necessary time is devoted to penetrate into secrets of good works of art. So, the magic of art cannot act on consciousness and raise it to higher stages.
It is sad to note that the soul of many human beings no longer “dreams”, no longer “sculpts worlds” and higher realities through the imagination.
Art should aspire to the Sacred, without confusing the “Sacred” with religion, without despising the material and the body, because the body is not only a useful and necessary tool, but it is the part that we can see and touch of our inner divinity.
True art is bearer of a tremendous spiritual force that does not need intermediaries. It is vitality, sap that is constantly renewed.
