Art and the changing world : uncommon sense in the 20th century

This essay is a tour-de-force review of the development of the intense Western cultural focus on reality as the outer world of objects, as expressed in art, from about 1000 CE to the 20th century. Blom then describes the artistic expression of the 20th century development of a new vision of reality

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that emphasizes both the human inner world and an appreciation of reality of both inner and outer as process, energy, relatedness, and transformation, rather than thingness. She notes the costs of the older exclusive view of reality, and also the dangers of wholesale rejection of it, as she calls for an integration of these two opposite visions.
Blom focuses on art as the expression and communication of a culture's view of reality, but the connections to religious sensibility are explicit. This is about social and religious change as much as abouit art and psychology. All of Blom's six Pendle Hill pamphlets address art and inner and outer reality, renewal, religion, myth, and healing, with this one and #148 focusing on art and the changes in our understanding and awareness of ourselves and the world in the 20th century. I think they can give a wonderful context for our 21st century forging of meaning. They are all insightful, provocative, and wise. They are #128, 148, 183, 197, 215, and 232.

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