The Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Truth and Art

The Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Truth and Art
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Art is usually conceived as a representation of reality, and sometimes art is created to imitate nature actions or relationships between human beings. Representation partly depends on the artistic forms, and there are unique symbolic features represented in each artwork. The idea that art represents reality supposes that art reflects the universal and is a source of information on reality. Aristotle argued that art is supposed to represent reality, while Plato was wary of artists and art as art represents an image of an image (Mitchell, 2014). Aristotle speaks of art as a human activity that is different from nature and goes through a production process where the art products may or may not be those of nature. While every art is a production, not every production is an art, and it is conscious production based on knowledge becomes art. Imitation represents reality as people know and perceive the reality, and people make comparisons with different creations. Art is a means of expression and representation of how people see reality or society in the world.
The painting Breaking Home Ties by Norman Rockwell (1954) focused on a son going to college, a father and the dog, with the son anxiously waiting for a train. Modern art tends to distort reality, and while Rockwell‘s painting was painted in the mid 20th century, it emphasizes naturalism compared to modern art. In the painting, the young man and his father sit down on a bench at a train stop, and the young man with a suitcase on the ground appears apprehensive. The scene mostly focuses on the young son leaving home as gets of age, and it is as though he is transitioning into adulthood and breaking his home ties. While Rockwell was an illustrator, he focused more on realism, and his artwork is part of modern art with minimal exaggerations where he focused on everyday life. In the painting, the American illustration artists portrayed contemporary social realities at the time and not fantasy like the previous art era.
Schelling argued that art did not represent the imitation but rather reveals a higher truth, and art has truth status. He also supposed that genuine art ought to present the unconscious in action and identify with the cons...