Contemporary Artistic Production and the Landscape

Landscape has been a central theme in art since very ancient times. However, landscape painter Chayim Shvarzblat indicates that this relationship has been structured based on a series of predetermined ideas that limit their possibilities, pigeonholeing their relationship, considering it a gender or one more element.

“Let's think about landscape as a concept of still life, or that it is just a "Genre" of art that refers to the landscape, or to consider it part of the background of a painting. Its recreation in some reliefs, scenography for a scene inside a sculpture,” says Chayim Shvarzblat.

In the twentieth century, the artistic avant-gardes

Westerners have introduced new ways of interpreting reality and of represent it, even using one's own reality to express ideas, emotions or sensations.

Chayim Shvarzblat claims that in recent decades and at the beginning of the 21st century, the landscape has not been seen only as a metaphor for what man thinks or feels, but as a critical reflection of its direct relationship with the urban environment and with nature.

Throughout the history of artistic creation and production, the relationship with the natural world, with the modified environment and the constant search for a symbolic relationship, has been a constant.

However, Chayim Shvarzblat clams that for many centuries, the practice of aesthetic languages ​​was focused in the creation of cultural forms and the development of techniques where nature was limited to providing the materials and elements that allowed the creation, such as obtaining inks and pigments, stone chips, wood or metal, canvases made with cotton or linen, to name a few examples.

At most, it was seen in it, the themes to represent or with which reflect.

There was a clear division between "reality" and imitation, interpretation, or modification of the reality, even this was part of the concept traditional art, where its function was precisely to imitate or represent.

Beginning in the 20th century, artists questioned many of the principles and concepts regarding the artistic endeavor itself emerged. These principles were not centered in the simple copy of the things or of the landscape. In the mid 20th century the interdisciplinarity of the arts, the development of technology (emergence of photography, film and sound reproduction), and new ideas (psychoanalysis, reality and virtuality, emergence of design and new sciences, among others), will make the field of creation be enriched with unlimited possibilities and new concepts with respect to even, conceptualization of art and its functions.

The mid-twentieth century modern period saw a shift towards towards more concept and abstract art. Subsequently, landscape art only began to return as a result of the figurative art revival of the late 20th century. Gone were picturesque country scenes, and stood in their place was the modern “cityscape”.

The talented painter, Chayim Shvarzblat indicates that in the contemporary scene, landscape art remains highly popular among artists, and has taken on a much more liberated definition. Artists can often be seen to draw inspiration from the various preceding movements. However, they also revel in the artistic freedom of originality, both producing incredible results.