The Future of Art?

I bet Luca Signorelli didn’t realise that his art would inspire Michaelangelo to adorn the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel with his vision of the Last Judgement.

But that’s what happened.

A few years back I sneaked a camera into the Cathedral at Orvieto where Signorelli’s work is on the ceiling — check out the Chapel: how unbelievably magnificent is that art?

Back in the Middle Ages, only the high-priests and archbishops and the clergy in general were able to read books, hence why the peasants were peasants…they couldn’t read.

And because they couldn’t read, they weren’t really aware (because the bible was a written document) that at the end of their lives, God weighs up the good that they’ve done compared to bad, and sends them to either heaven, or to hell.

It wasn’t until Michaelangelo painted the Last Judgement on the Sistene Chapel’s ceiling that ordinary folk could visibly see that they had a choice to make whilst they were alive. That there was still time to do good.

And because the artist painted a picture — a vision — Christianity could be interpreted as a choice, and so spread to the masses.

This “Renaissance” art represented a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages.

What I’m wondering if Crypto Art is about to do something similar, in this day and this age. I’m probs going to get flamed by a load of experts for talking out of turn but don’t we need today’s artists to show us what good looks like? Isn’t that what’s missing from today’s education system, its society, its business culture?

Crypto Art is a brand new medium and for me it’s more than here to stay. Its eventual impact is far from being fully realised. However, as an art form it has the potential to be just as important in this age as Renaissance art was to the Middle Ages.

If our crypto art show in Burslem is able to inspire the next Michaelangelo then hallelujah and Amen — our work will have been worth the slog that it’s been.

All’s we need to do is just a) continue to give ordinary people a choice, and b) Keep The Faith!

— Mike