The Rebellion of Modern Art: An Attempt to Reclaim the Lost Depths | Chapter 4: The Collapse of the Symbolic World and the Spiritual Loss of Modernity (4-6)
In the age of science and rationality, art sought to protect the "invisible."
The moment you feel that "modern art is hard to understand," you are already under the influence of modernity.
From the 19th to the 20th century, the history of European thought underwent a massive shift. Descartes "objectified" the world, Kant placed the deep world "outside of cognition," positivism made it difficult to deal with things that could not be observed, and Nietzsche declared the "death of God."
Amidst these trends, it is believed that
the depths and symbolism of the world moved away from the center of society, and the human inner world gradually became flattened.
However, against this modern tide, only one domain attempted a quiet yet fierce resistance.
That was art.
1. Art sought to protect the "lost depths"
Many art movements that emerged from the late 19th to the early 20th century were not merely changes in style.
Symbolism
Expressionism
Abstract painting
Modern music
Surrealism
Butoh and physical expression
Reinterpretation of religious painting
These were all born as attempts to reclaim the "deep world" that had become difficult to see within modernity.
The more science and rationality strengthened their power to explain the world, the more artists conversely tried to express "things that cannot be explained," "things that cannot be measured," and "things that cannot be put into words."
They sought to protect the conviction that the world has an invisible depth in the form of their works.
2. Symbolism: Recalling the invisible world through "symbols"
Symbolist painters and poets like Moreau and Baudelaire did not try to depict the outer world, but rather to express the inner world through symbols.
A work that depicts a mythological scene while symbolizing the confrontation between Oedipus and the Sphinx as an "inner trial of the soul." The mystical light and decorative details hint at inner conflicts and the depths of fate.
For them, light, flowers, shadows, angels, forests, women, and animals—these motifs were not merely "objects," but symbols pointing to states of the soul and the depths of the world.
Symbolism was a movement that could be called a "second symbolic world," born after the symbolic world of the Middle Ages had been lost.
3. Expressionism: Painting the Inner Scream as It Is
Furthermore, Expressionist painters like Munch and Kirchner prioritized expressing inner impulses and emotions directly over accurately depicting the world.
The figures of people relaxing at the beach are depicted with exaggerated colors and forms, prioritizing the expression of the painter's inner impulses and vitality over the reproduction of reality.
Distorted lines
Intense colors
Unstable compositions
These were also attempts to show "how much the human interior is shaken as the world becomes flattened."
They sought to appeal to the existence of a deep world by carving the screams of the soul onto the canvas.
4. Abstract Art: The Revolution That Attempted to Paint a "World Without Form"
Pioneers of abstract art such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich completely stopped depicting the world. They believed that color and form themselves act directly upon the depths of the soul.
An abstract painting that expresses religious themes such as resurrection and judgment using only color and line, abandoning realistic forms.
Kandinsky stated the following:
"Color is a keyboard that resonates directly with the soul."
Abstract art was an attempt to reclaim the "spiritual depth" that modernity had lost, in a realm beyond form.
5. Modern Music: The Collapse of Harmony and the Search for a New Order
In the world of music, too, attempts were made to reclaim the deep world.
Debussy's ambiguous harmonies
Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique
Stravinsky's primitive rhythms
Messiaen's religious soundscapes
These were all attempts to seek 'another order' that cannot be captured by modern rationality .
Music is an expression that reaches deeper places than words. That is precisely why artists sought to summon back the 'lost depths' through the world of sound.
Art may have existed not to be understood, but
"to protect what was being lost".
6. However, society could not understand it
The attempts of these artists were not necessarily accepted by society.
'Too difficult'
'I don't understand the meaning'
'Escaping from reality'
'Destroying tradition'
Many such criticisms were leveled against them.
Art was not misunderstood because it was difficult. It was because modern society had lost the very 'ability to handle things that cannot be understood.'
As a result, art that attempted to express the deep world was gradually pushed to the fringes of society.
Art became isolated as the endeavor of a minority trying to protect the depths.
7. The isolation of art symbolizes the 'crisis of the soul' in modernity
The fact that art became isolated is not merely a matter of cultural history.
It is also a symbol of modern society losing its ability to handle the deep world.
The world is understood as data, humans are treated as functions, the mind is explained as a mechanism, values are relativized, and symbols are considered subjective.
Amidst this trend, only art continued to insist that 'the depths still exist'.
The isolation of art can be said to reflect the very process by which modern humans have lost sight of their inner depths.
8. The rebellion of art is also a question posed to the present day
The rebellion of modern art is not merely a historical event.
It poses the question, "Can humans live without a world of depth?" to the modern age.
Can the world be explained by rationality alone?
Can humans be understood through data alone?
Where does the soul go without symbols or stories?
The attempts of these artists were an "intuitive resistance" to this question.
However, at the same time, it leaves us with another question.
How can the lost symbols and the depths of the soul be restored?
Are they truly "lost"?
Or have we simply become "unable to see" them?
Image source: Gustave Moreau, "The Judgment of Paris" (1852) / Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
▼ Chapter 4: The Collapse of the Symbolic World and the Spiritual Loss of Modernity
4-1: The Cartesian Split—The moment the world was pushed to the "outside"
4-2: Kant's Setting of Limits—The spiritual world became "unknowable"
4-3: Why did "invisible things" come to be disregarded?
4-4: In an age where "we don't know what to believe"—The true meaning shown by Nietzsche and the "death of God"
4-5: Freud and the Unconscious—Psychology as the fragmentation of the soul
4-6: The Rebellion of Modern Art—An attempt to reclaim the lost depths (this article)
*This series will continue