Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? by Richard Hamilton (1956)The World at War and the Faces of Progress
During the first half of the twentieth century, events of the world occurred ever faster, globally and tumultuously; in particular, world powers fought in two devastating world wars and languished in the Great Depression in between. Globally, people witnessed a new set of -isms: Communism, Fascism, Nazism. The Industrial Revolution had taken off and was accelerating the world, at a faster and faster pace. Change was inevitable. By the second half of the century, the fast pace of progress seemed inevitable, and warring of the nations seemed perpetual. In the midst of such a challenging world, artists grappled with deep and disturbing issues and confusion, asking new questions. What, for example, was the meaning of art? What is art? What was the meaning of life itself? Artists began to see themselves as spiritual leaders of sorts, and felt compelled to make social commentary on the issues, change and devastation they saw all around them. Nature versus technology was a major theme, and later human rights and equality for all—especially for traditionally marginalized groups such as women and minorities; all of this in the face of the world's rapid change into ever-more mechanized modernity. In the face of the new reality—the new human condition—brought on by the these changes, and the devastation of the resultant wars, artists also sought to explore the meaning of permanence, sometimes in a hopeful manner, other times in despair.
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