Post-Viral Art

Rushing to say it before anyone else does

There is a good reason why Post-War Art is so different from Modern Art. The impact of the events that happened was so massive that the whole society was influenced by it. The art world wasn't the exception. The new movements emerged, the approach and definition of art was changed. Then it slowly morphed into contemporary, and despite repeated attempts for come up with a new term for the new art, we still defining everything created since then as 'contemporary', while majority of contemporary icons are dead. That's also for a reason: instrumentally nothing changed.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica: possibly the most vivid illustration of war impact on art.

But was it only because of the war? I believe not. The changes were already build and formed, there were artists, building the context for this change. The war was just a trigger, redistributing focal points, wealth and political influence.

It's already apparent that this half a year will change our civilization forever, just like World Wars did, or plagues, or epoch of great explorations. The future is still foggy, the end of the event is still far, and the damage is yet to be calculated. However what is certain already, we are not coming back, not to what it was before. The art was always a mirror of society, adapting and meeting the demands before humanity realized they have it.

Jackson Pollock’s Mural, commissioned in 1943

And the result? My opinion - expect the new art. If I may speculate, the defining qualities for the Post-Viral Art will be: more figurative and more humane. Our present mainstream art world became analytical, and invented social distancing before it was cool. If you would look at the present picture - what's trending is art, which essentially can be explained to AI, works that have logical basis, but little humanity, art where aesthetics are secondary, and fragment is more important than the whole.

I may sound naive and overly optimistic, but this collective experience (even more unique because it's possibly the first time the entire humanity is going through it simultaneously) should bring the demand in art towards work, which reflects on complexity of a person, the relationship of a human with other humans and the world at large.

Just alike with Post-War there is a pre-course and predecessors, and first wave of this art will be composed of those, who sensed this demand before any of this happened. Just like before this situation is not a cause but merely a trigger. And new vision is already here, waiting to resonate.

Matthias Alfen works on his new statue, symbolizing the birth of man, in modern context possibly also pre-defining the birth of new art.

I was discussing this with several theoreticians of art and inspired artists, the most recently one of the predecessors of this new wave I am talking about - Matthias Alfen, and it seems that this moment is already here, all we needed i to give it a name and get to work.

Alex AG, 'Black Horse Walking Streets of New York, Waiting. From COVID 19, NY 2020 chronicles.

I hope that my work as an artist will fit in the context of Post-Viral Art, if of course my expectations will become true, and we all are ready for the change.

The real question is: Are we?

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Alex AG: www.orbvista.com

Matthias Alfen: www.matthiasalfen.com