Something New: Expectations vs Reality

August 2024

Paint Tubes
- Expectations: Some artists felt they would lose some control over their art, materials and techniques with the shift to more readily available paint tubes instead of artisan mixing of pigments.
- Reality: Paint tubes changed everything. Renoir said: "Without colors in tubes, there would be no Cézanne, no Monet, no Pissarro, and no Impressionism."

Photography
- Expectations: Charles Baudelaire said that photography was "the refuge of every would-be painter, every painter too ill-endowed or too lazy to complete his studies" and to embrace it was a sign of "blindness" and "imbecility." Paul Delaroche said, "From today, painting is dead."
- Reality: Photography did not kill painting. It transformed it. Photography freed painting from its traditional role of realistic depiction, allowing it to explore new territories in abstraction, expressionism, and other movements.

Moving Pictures
- Expectations: Moving pictures were seen as a novelty. The Lumière brothers described the moving image as "an invention without a future."
- Reality: Film became the seventh art.

Sound in Movies
- Expectations: Talkies were met with fear. Filmmakers went on strike and protested against having sound in movies. They believed movies should be accompanied by orchestras. Chaplin believed that adding sound would ruin the art of visual storytelling. Many feared it would make films less universal, as language barriers would limit international appeal.
- Reality: Sound revolutionized cinema, adding depth to storytelling and creating new genres like musicals. It opened up new possibilities for dialogue, sound effects, and music, enhancing the emotional impact of films.

CGI
- Expectations: Traditional animators and practical effects artists worried that CGI would make their skills obsolete.
- Reality: CGI has become an integral part of modern filmmaking, enhancing both animated and live-action films. CGI has allowed filmmakers to bring previously unimaginable worlds and characters to life.

Photoshop
- Expectations: Traditional photographers and artists feared that Photoshop would devalue their craft, making it too easy for amateurs to create professional-looking images. There were concerns about the ethics of image manipulation in journalism and advertising. "You won't be able to distinguish what is real from what is not"
- Reality: Photoshop has become an essential tool in digital art, photography, and graphic design. It has expanded the possibilities for creative expression and allowed artists to push the boundaries of visual art.

Music Synthesizers
- Expectations: Traditional musicians feared that synthesizers would replace real instruments and lead to the death of "authentic" music. There were concerns that electronic music would sound artificial and lack emotion. It was considered "soulless."
- Reality: Synthesizers have become an integral part of modern music production across various genres. Rather than replacing traditional instruments, they have expanded the sonic palette available to musicians.

[Notes]
https://www.getty.edu/publications/resources/virtuallibrary/0892363223.pdf
https://loxleyarts.com/blogs/news/history-of-the-paint-tube
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-paint-tube-36637764/
https://www.artandobject.com/news/today-painting-dead-photographys-revolutionary-effect
https://cliffordthurlow.com/2021/06/10/an-invention-without-a-future/