Influence of the Industrial Revolution on Art.

Dimly lit factories, filled with workers, working in unsanitary conditions for minimum wages, is the image that we have of the Industrial revolution in our minds. It started around the 18th century, with four stages to it. Beginning with coal, then gas, then electronics and currently, we are in the age of the internet, which is considered the fourth stage of the industrial revolution. Needless to say, these revolutions have revolutionized the way humans have lived for centuries before.

The industrial revolution brought about an unprecedented change in the way we lived and operated. It completely changed the game for how we harnessed energy. Before the revolution, humans had one main source of energy, muscles, which were limited. After the revolution, we had coal, oil, petroleum, ie. fossil fuels, energy that was unlimited. We could now produce so much more, on such a large scale using machines, and cheap human labor, that it was impossible to bring under control. This unlimited access to energy was enjoyed by the elite, who didn’t have to work long hours in the dim lit factories.

Symbolizing major societal change, it's frightening (as change always is), and massive political upheavals are taking place at the same time. Hope, progress, and advancement are represented by industrial mechanization, which has the potential to make life easier and more exciting. It's also loud, ugly, mechanical, perplexing, dangerous, and oppressive.

It's hardly surprising, then, that the art movement sprung up in response to it, with emotion, nostalgia, and a concentration on the raw beauty of nature, the rough, isolated areas, the exotic, and free places. And since art is an expression of the way an artist perceives the world around him, art was affected in major ways due to this revolution.

Two main types of artists during this era; The realists and the romanticists. The realists portrayed the harsh reality of how human beings worked in inhumane conditions, and made the kind of art that industrial workers could relate to, hoping that people would notice and it would lead to the improved conditions for factory workers. However, the romantics were still living in the past, and they chose to paint sceneries from the farm life, of the wide and green beautiful landscape that they had left behind in pursuit of this gray and dusty one.

This age also had both positive and negative impacts on the artists themselves. Paint was now available in tubes due to advancement in preservation of resources. Artists no longer had to stay inside and mix ground pigment with oil and paint their scenes from memory. They could now paint outside, where the scene was. Hence, a lot of new artists emerged due to the now abundant resources with which to paint and draw. The negative side to this was that the paintings and the artwork could be made into copies easily with the invention of the printing press, hence, the value of original artwork declined, making the artists feel less satisfied with their work.

Art has always been an expression of the artist's perception of their surroundings, and as environments change, art changes. In the ancient times, art was cave paintings of hunt scenes and agriculture scenes, and in the middle ages artists were obsessed with painting portraits of people and beautiful landscapes, while the industrial age bought us artwork depicting factory life, and poverty ridden households.Not only has artwork evolved, but even artists. One example is robots (softwares/applications) creating artwork like 'mid journey' and 'Dall-E', that has taken over the creative industry. However, the artwork is initiated by human text prompts, so all hope is not lost. The age of the internet has shown us many wonders, and we’re excited, and maybe even a bit scared of what it will bring us in the future. Please do share your thoughts on this. Till then, keep reading for more insightful blogs. See you next week.