Humanistic Art:  A Field Guide

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At the End of the Day, Jules Breton

What You'll Find at the PL Guide to Humanistic Art

Our basic task in this field guide is to rethink the arts in light of Humanistic values.

The need for a reevaluation of this kind derives from  three issues.  First, there is tremendous confusion today about the nature of art, and even greater confusion about the nature of good art.  Second, there is confusion concerning the difference between art and entertainment.  And, third, it's important to understand how the subtle, but destructive and pervasive influence of commerce upon the arts prevents them from blossoming as they should.

Since it's helpful in thinking about art to keep in mind the various manifestations of art, we begin with an overview of the various art forms.  We then continue with a brief survey of some influential, if confused views concerning the nature of art.

Having considered a variety of other points of view, we then go on to provide what we hope is a better theory of the purpose of art than any previously offered.  We're especially concerned to explain why we think it's possible to offer objective judgments of artistic merit.  

In the light of this new theory we then offer a historical perspective and a critique of so-called "Modernism," which has, for the most part, exercised a malignant influence.

This paves the way for an essay on the Humanistic mission of the arts:  to help us become more aware, more perceptive, and more fully human.

To date, the Social Realism movement has provided perhaps the most consistently humanistic fulfillment of the arts, so we offer quite a few links in the weblinks section at the bottom of this frameset.  It is revealing in the extreme that art that reflects social or political concerns is virtually taboo in the US, and that Social Realists are, in effect, censored.  It is also revealing that American Social Realists saw their heyday in the years from 1930 to 1945 — the period when, arguably, the US came closest to being a genuine democracy.  (Incidentally, Social Realism and so-called "Socialist Realism" are entirely different phenomena, the later being, in effect, art propaganda on behalf of the Soviet Union.)

Finally, we close with a gallery of the art of George Tooker, whom we would nominate as the greatest contemporary American artist, and who is an impressive exemplar of what Humanistic artists can aspire to. 

In the future we will offer comparable galleries of the work of other artists, together with recommendations concerning Humanistic music and literature, so as to provide a more panoramic overview.