Lecture
The term materialism commonly refers to a current of thought that developed between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries, in which all phenomena of the external world were explained solely in mechanical terms, without any interaction from human or divine will, and all things were regarded as inanimate.
This outlook is relatively recent compared with the vast, ancient animist culture in which all things participate in the mystery of life. It has clearly had consequences for society, everyday life and, naturally, art. Our research examines how this way of seeing the world and ourselves is expressed in art, identifying the beliefs and social and individual behaviours through which a break with life’s mystical dimension occurs. Nevertheless, we believe materialism was a necessary and useful stage in overcoming naïve superstition and magical thinking, making possible, in recent decades, a new spirituality driven by the urgent need to respond to the impoverishment caused by materialism.
Seminar
This study seminar analyses the influence of materialistic beliefs on contemporary art and the ways in which these attitudes have diminished art’s role in society, often making it incomprehensible and diverting it from its central purpose towards values that carry the seeds of violence, such as greed for money, the pursuit of success and intellectual corruption. After identifying the key elements of materialism in art, we will explore how this way of feeling and seeing the world and ourselves has influenced our own creations. These reflections will help us identify possible strategies and paths for developing spirituality in our work.
Seminar Topics
Who It Is For
Open to everyone, particularly painters, draughtspeople and art students who bring documentation of their work. Maximum of 15 participants.
Duration
The seminar lasts 16 hours over Saturday and Sunday, plus a two-hour lecture on Friday evening.
Cost
The fee for each seminar is agreed upon with those interested.
Download workshop information sheet (PDF, Italian)
Lecture preview
Il materialismo nell’arte
The materialistic impulse that has driven craftspeople and artists throughout history is far more evident than the spiritual impulse, simply because the pressure of material needs for survival has profoundly shaped people’s lives on Earth. This does not mean that the need for expression has always yielded to the need to sustain the body, but art has certainly been motivated perhaps more often by material than by spiritual concerns. We observe that the artistic creations of peoples not organised into large civilisations often spring from a sacred need: they are not made for profit or to propagate the ideas or values of a ruling class. This is grassroots art, made by people for people. Folk art is seldom materialistic, although its spirituality rarely rises above superstition and naïve beliefs about reality.
In great civilisations, the artist is a craftsperson, with little room for individual expression and an emphasis instead on collective, usually standardised forms. There is important evidence of spiritual expression in art during periods of relative prosperity and considerable creative freedom. We believe this arose primarily from an inner impulse, as well as from a reduction in the pressures of material circumstances. In Chinese art, those most devoted to spiritual expression were not professional painters but wealthy officials, military figures and nobles who practised calligraphic painting as an accomplishment, although some painted every day.
It is therefore important to understand the relationship between materialism and spirituality—a relationship that is certainly neither mechanical nor simply causal—in order to harmonise these two dimensions, which do not exist separately but complement one another.