Previously while I was browsing Twitter I came across a post critiquing a style of art we are all familiar with, “Corporate Memphis'. Without having to say anything else I hope it is obvious that the account was right-wing. Critiquing this aesthetic has become almost a perfect signal of someone's political ideology. But why? What is it about artistic aesthetics that makes them political? On the face of it, there is nothing about “Corporate Memphis'' that would make it explicitly liberal but it is. The intuitive explanation that artistic aesthetics takes on the politics of the movements they are associated with feels incomplete. Instead, I think that like most things in life, the politicization of an aesthetic is more nuanced than simply association; rather it is like an acorn; the political connotation was already present and simply required the correct context to emerge.
Political movements are drawn to the aesthetic movements that capture something fundamental about their metaphysics and thus allow for easy communication of their ideals. And in return, they shape the ideologies that are drawn to them. The motifs of an aesthetic influence political movements by drawing those people who are temperamentally inclined towards the specific form.
Corporate Memphis:
Example of the style generated using DALLE
Corporate Memphis is an almost perfect representation of this relationship. The artistic style is utopian and optimistic. Even the attempts at the macabre, like “Dumb Ways to Die”, are done whimsically. The use of stylization allows for the natural inclusion of racial diversity through its use of contrasting colors. Importantly, this diversity does not require engagement with other cultures but instead can be abstracted away using a palette of bright flat colors. It has naturally drawn advertising departments from major corporations who want to create easy, simple images that can be used in culturally agnostic environments.
The utopian and optimistic tone aligns well with the branding strategies of many urban liberal entities. Its portrayal of idealized, harmonious communities echoes the progressive vision of an inclusive and diverse society championed by urban liberal elites.
Corporate Memphis can be seen as a natural extension of the postmodern aesthetic into the 21st century. Where postmodernism often embraced eclecticism and irony, Corporate Memphis distills these elements into a more streamlined and universally palatable form. It takes the experimental and deconstructivist spirit of postmodernism and standardizes while trying to retain as much of the creative expression and boundary removal as possible. In short the aesthetic and form of Corporate Memphis have led to its politicization.
Neo-Classical/Classical:
The right-wing equivalent to this is “Neo-Classical” architecture and art. Similar to Corporate Memphis it has taken on a highly political connotation in recent years but the seeds of this were always present. It carries with it a whiff of the “old” world and the academia of Plato and the Renaissance. More recently it became extremely popular during the 19th century and so many traditional works of architecture in the West including the US capitol are Neo-Classical. The aesthetic is old and so inherently conservative. Often the use of Neo-Classical buildings is presented online next to modern architecture as a way of highlighting the decadent decline away from physical beauty. The White marble of Neo-Classical statutes is appealing to reactionaries for a similar reason that the bright and diverse color palette of the Corporate Memphis is to middle-aged urban liberals. Finally, it presents a view of architecture as “complete” or “objective” with the ultimate goal being the perpetual refinement and improvement of an ideal aesthetic form. In brief it offers a conservative reply to postmodern architecture’s focus on the creation of new and innovative forms.
Abstract Expressionism:
Example of the style generated using DALLE
This art form which emerged in the first half of the twentieth century is most famously associated with Jackson Pollock. It seeks to capture freedom and movement in art but rather than trying to capture ‘progress’ like Futurism - I will discuss this next - instead, it aims for an anarchic and chaotic form that rejects easy characterization. Pollock’s most famous work of art “Number 1(Lavender Mist)” is the quintesential example of Abstract Expressionism. Personally, I think the National Gallery of Art put it best: “Pollock’s canvases from this decisive phase of his career are considered to have transformed the experience of looking “at” a work of art into one of being immersed, upright, in its fullness. His mastery of chance, intuition, and control brought abstract expressionism to a new level.”
This aesthetic form naturally drew Boomer Liberals with their generation's emphasis on self-expression and authenticity. Abstract impressionism places the person consuming the art fundamentally at the center of the artistic experience, rather than in traditional art where the image is meant to convey a message instead the art is supposed to open a space in which people can have their own subjective and unique experience.
Importantly the art is also explicitly both anti-conservative, by rejecting traditional forms of art, and anti-communist, by being in almost complete opposition to the then official artistic style of the USSR - Soviet Realism. Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York from 1959-1973 and Vice President under Gerald Ford, poster child of the Liberal wing of the Republican party referred to the art style as “free enterprise painting”. Evidence of unknown quality even indicates that the US government promoted the artistic movement in response to Soviet criticism of the US cultural “desert”.
In brief, abstract expressionism acted as a useful vessel for Boomer Liberal values of freedom, authenticity, and free expression and also shaped the generation by raising up a cohort of artists steeped in these traditions.
Futurism:
Example of the style generated using DALLE
Italy as a society spent the 1920s reeling from its “mutilated victory”. The country desperately needed social reform as their performance in WW1 has shown clearly, but how and in what shape this reform would take was unclear. Ultimately Italy would choose Fascism and Totalitarianism before being crushed in WW2. However, an important and little-known component of the rise of Fascism in Italy during the interwar period was the aesthetic movement of Futurism.
I will not give a history of the movement, for that I recommend the Wikipedia page, but the aesthetic values of Futurism were an almost perfect fit for Italian Fascism; it embraced strength, violence, and movement. It was pro-Modernity and ani-traditional - in particular, anti-Victorian but it was not utopian and socialistic like Soviet Realism. Many of its creators can be best described as ~warrior-poets~. Gabrielle D’Annunzio who led the capture of the city of Fiume - a story interesting enough it deserves its own essay - after WW1 represents an archetypical form of the Futurist man, bold, unafraid to use violence, and willing to break traditions. In fact, the relationship between fascism and futurism is so deep that Filippo Marinetti authored both the “Manifesto of Futurism” and the “Fascist Manifesto”. Again here the artistic aesthetic didn’t become political but instead contained metaphysics about the world which was both shaped by and shaped a political movement.
Conclusion:
The politicization of artistic aesthetics is a multifaceted phenomenon, where art forms become political not simply by association but because of deeper beliefs about the world they represent; in brief artistic aesthetics carry within them implicit metaphysical and ideological seeds that, given the right social and political context, can germinate into explicit political connotations.
The aesthetics of an era do not merely reflect the political landscape but actively participate in shaping and defining it. The motifs and forms of an aesthetic draw individuals who are temperamentally inclined toward them along with giving them tools to present their vision of society to the public at large creating a powerful synergy between art and politics.
