What does Art teach us about Culture? Notes from Hungary!

How does culture spread? My theory is that people seek inclusion and status within their community, so pay close attention to what peers do and revere.

Technology is a game-changer, as it enables people to learn from distant others. Specifically, people tend to emulate those who are regarded as especially successful - aka ‘prestige bias’.

Now, thus far, I have not mentioned any specific kind of culture. It could be music, food, fashion, architecture, gender or art. The same principles hold for all expressions and performances of culture. (That’s my theory, at least). But today let me focus on art.

As I travel across cities, visiting art museums, I realise that artistic styles spread through the exact same mechanisms as gender norms. Artists, like all of us, are attuned to pillars of prestige - within their specific network. When Manet was praised as the peak of creativity, others followed suit. With a flurry of excitement in Cubism and Expression, rebelling against traditional strictures, this inspired a wider movement of Modern Art.

If you ever want to convince anyone of the importance of interdisciplinarity, I’d recommend an art gallery. Historical paintings are perhaps the best preserved evidence of the conjunction between cultural creativity, market demand, and state institutions. The institutional part is key here - public exhibitions were vital for an artist’s reputation and sales. But getting accepted meant pleasing institutional gatekeepers, including religious watchdogs.

So while national galleries are not time-portals into every day life, they can give us a glimmer of institutionally-accepted visions of what matters, what should be shown, captured and publicly displayed.

One more caveat is that historical paintings are hardly representative. Whatever ideals are projected in elite paintings, these would not necessarily resonate with the rural hinterland - especially in times of low literacy, little homogenising schooling, and scant communications.

OK, so with this theoretical framework, please come with me into Hungary’s National Gallery!