Why 1925 is the most important year in the history of art
Trust me, I know how this looks. How can one possibly say that 1925, or any year for that matter, is more important than any other year when it comes to something as subjective as art? It’s a fine question, but one that is worth asking, at least in my opinion.
After all, when you really look at it, we’re not talking about subjectivity. We’re not talking about the greatest year in the history of art, that really would be as much of a non-starter as it sounds. Talking about the quality of anything when it comes to art is firmly in the realm of the subjective. What we consider to be good art is a combination of our feelings, upbringing and values, no matter what some con artists with horrible ideas about what constitutes Western civilisation say.
However, what we’re talking about is the most important year, and that is slightly more quantifiable.
Even those who hate The Beatles and Pablo Picasso (even for justifiable reasons) have to concede that their impact on their medium of choice is seismic. Conversely, one’s favourite band is probably nowhere near as important to the culture as they are to you. Or maybe they are, and that’s a hill you’ll kill and die on. The conversations that come from that are the heart of good art criticism.
But, when it comes to what changes culture as a whole, it’s best not to focus on individual artists when you could focus on eras. While you can tell a lot about a time period by looking at the most popular artists of the time, you can tell a lot more by looking at what people are creating as a whole. That way, you can see not only what’s resonating with people in the mainstream, but what is sowing the seeds for what comes next.
It’s this attitude that makes 1925 a key candidate for the most important year in the history of art.
What makes 1925 so important to art?
To be clear, this goes far beyond individual works released. Although this was the year that Frida Kahlo began painting, and masterworks by Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró were completed as well, so if you wanted to make that argument, I’m sure you could. No, 1925 is important for broader reasons than that. In the works of art coming out, you can see a culture come to terms with the trauma of World War I, and realise that the rest of the century is going to be just as confusing and horrible as those four traumatic years.
The vast majority of work released that year reckons with how everything the world had come to understand had been upended. First by the war, then the Spanish flu, then the economic prosperity that brought on the roaring twenties – the rise of Dada and the first major surrealist exhibitions reflected how out of control the world felt, works of art that showed that the world wasn’t just confusing, but fundamentally un-understandable.
However, if you’re going to talk about the art of 1925, then you can’t ignore the incredible literature published in that year. All of which reflects this uncertainty in the era. The likes of The Great Gatsby, Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans, and Virginia World’s Mrs Dalloway were all released. A young writer by the name of Ernest Hemingway published his first work, the collection of short stories In Our Time. It’s not just the effect these had at the time, though. It’s not even that these works were remembered, either.
These works, whether they were in art, literature, music or film, were the first examples of the way that the 20th century would reflect upon itself. They took a look at the messages mainstream society told them and simultaneously rejected, yet longed for them. It’s not simple proto-punk rock violence against the system; it’s artists being attracted to the lies they’re being told, yet knowing it’s a lie, and making art that reflects that complicated emotional state.
Over the rest of the century, everyone from Diego Rivera, Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon, Dolly Parton, David Lynch, Tupac Shakur and thousands of others spent the rest of the century reckoning with exactly the same sentiment. If that doesn’t make the art of 1925 the most important ever, I don’t know what does.