Narrative art has a long history. For millennia, humans have told stories through pictures. Sometimes multiple scenes were presented within a single image to illustrate a sequence of events; at other times, a single scene was used to convey an entire story. These narratives often depicted well-known stories circulating within a culture or religion.
This began to change at the end of the 19th century, when Modernism took hold and artists began experimenting with the effects of time and space. Throughout the 20th century, artists increasingly questioned the very definition of art and what makes something ‘Art’ in the first place. Artists were increasingly pushing the limits of 2D space, abstracting the picture plane as far as they could.
It is relatively rare to find artists in the 20th century who painted narratives. Those who did were often considered outcasts within the art world, and their work was dismissed as antiquated or out of touch. Instead, abstract and conceptual art dominated much of the century.
As we step into the 21st century, artists are once again turning to storytelling in their work. But there is a significant difference between contemporary artists and their pre-20th-century predecessors: we create new stories. Rather than drawing exclusively from ancient religious texts or established cultural narratives, contemporary artists often invent stories of their own. The paintings may offer clues that invite viewers to piece together the narrative, but the meaning is not always immediately apparent. Sometimes the ending is unknown; sometimes it remains deliberately ambiguous.
For more articles on contemporary figurative art, please go to Figure Ground Art Review at https://medium.com/figure-ground-art-review
For more articles on narrative painting, please go to Narrative Painting on Substack: https://narrativepainting.substack.com/