The ethno-cultural roots of national art

Abstract

By examining the period from the late eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, this article shows the development in European art of a new genre, that of national art. The new artistic orientation was taken from the doctrine of nationalism, a philosophy which idealised the nation, the historically-evolved, ethno-cultural community. The essay shows, first, that the visual arts have been potent vehicles of the national idea; second, that works of art have been accepted as 'national' only to the extent to which they have captured the way of life of the wider, cultural community, rather than that of the elites alone; third, that artists, by engaging with the 'spirit' of their cultural community, have contributed to the modernisation of this community-the systematisation or 'streamlining' of ethnic identities and solidarities into national identities and solidarities; and fourth, that the creative transformation of the ethnocultural experience into art has also transformed this experience into a positive and central, national experience. © ASEN 2004.