Right before Christmas four years ago, something happened in the art world that surprised even the seen-it-all modern art connoisseurs. "Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp – a white porcelain urinal first presented to the public in all its aseptic, utilitarian beauty in 1917 – was decidedly voted "the most influential work of art of the 20th century." Works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse didn't do so well and only came in second, third and fifth. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Surprise, surprise. Even the former curator of interpretation at London's Tate Gallery confessed to being “a bit shocked” at the results, and added: “Ten years ago Picasso or Matisse would have won. They were the twin kings of modern art – but not any more it seems..."
Wait, it gets better. You've probably heard about – or maybe even seen – “Body Worlds,” the controversial "corpse art" exhibit? In 2005, the now-famous cadaver sculptures made a huge splash in Europe and all across the U.S. “A collection of bodies and organs” manipulated into poses set a new museum attendance record in Tampa, FL, and drew over 16 million visitors in the 27 U.S. cities where the show had run. (Associated Press)
The following year brought another noteworthy report from the international art scene. When Melancholy, Genius and Insanity in Art – an exhibit that “traces melancholy in art” – opened in Berlin in 2006, the New National Gallery had to stay open late due to the show’s “phenomenal success.” (Deutsche Welle) Some said that Germans had always been pessimistic, but when the show went to Paris, it became the same huge hit. Maybe the Germans do have a historic “culture of pessimism," but what did the French have to feel sad about?
(As a side note, in 2006 a German survey showed that, “depressive feelings in young Germans under the age of 29 have doubled.” There was even a public campaign in Germany designed to get the country “into a better mood.” And it wasn't just Germany’s problem. According to a World Economic Forum survey, in 2004 the “world’s most pessimistic” people on the planet lived not in the poorest African countries, as you might think, but in the core nations of the European Union.)
On this side of the pond, in 2006 The New York Times documented the start of "skullmania": the new fashion of putting a human skull image on clothes. The trend arguably culminated in 2007 when Damien Hirst's famous sculpture "For the Love of God" – a real human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds – sold for $99 million. "The skull," observed the NYT, "has lost virtually all of its fearsome outsider meaning. It has become the Happy Face of the 2000’s."
Which brings up an interesting question: Is there a connection between the recent popularity of “all things melancholic” and the state of our collective spirits at the time?
We at EWI think there is. Notice how the Tate Gallery art expert said that ten years ago – i.e., in the mid-1990s – things were quite different. And now, we call a urinal "the most influential work of art of the 20th century" and flock to see dead bodies set as sculptures. What’s happened to us – the public and art critics – over the past ten-twelve years?
Conventional social scientists may say that what drags down our spirits are the global economic and political uncertainties of this decade. However, from an Elliott wave (or socionomic) point of view, the answer is completely – and astonishingly – different.
In this short column, it's impossible to show you just how different a socionomic explanation really is. There is a better way to do it, anyway – explain it in a video. If you've not yet seen the free documentary "History's Hidden Engine," we invite you to do it now. It may just be the most eye-opening film you’ll ever see.