Now What???

So after the enlightenment Era art started to move allot more freely and develop into Romanticisium and further art movements. More freedom was allowed, permitting creativity and self-indulgence within its contence. Utopia had been written by Thomas Moore by now and even though he, himself was a religious man who was beheaded for his believes, his book was open to anyone with different backgrounds. Paintings of a Utopian view in the Romanticisium period where still peaceful and romantic but the present of a godly figure was no longer in every utopian image. An example of this is with J. M. W. Turner and his painting, Chichester Canal, Image below. Some artist where producing these beautiful panoramic landscapes of a peaceful, calming nature.

Now because of the enlightenment era the idea of a heavenly or Utopian place was seen as an actuall possible place on earth. But because of the french revolution and the war which followed this era, the idea of a Dystopia or hellish place was also seen as being on earth, For example with Théodore Géricault’s painting The Raft Of The Medusa, hanging at the louvre, France.(Image below)

So it appears that war had become a new topic as a way of Dystopia and that from this point things appeared to get worse for the human race as we started to become more and more wanting of this utopia or heaven to exist now on earth. One prime example of a dictator ship that wanted a Utopian world in his time of life and run by himself was Adolf Hitler. This World War 2 had once again changed peoples perception of what is or is not utopia. A favouret artist of mine, Henry Moore, was influenced by this war and of human nature its self. His underground tube station drawing i find beautiful even though the subject matter is sad. (image below)

As you can see, as time has moved on so to has the freedom to express your self through art and no longer was art about trying to write a biblical story in images but has now moved on to tell a story with the artist own perceptions and emotions incorporated within it.