Historical and Aesthetic Awareness: (De)colonial Art and Image

Abstract

To analyze, describe, and classify the human achievements considered culturally and socially as art is to reflect on the experiences and aesthetic effects of various historical contexts, especially on the judgments of cultural values and images. In this sense, this article addresses historical consciousness as a collective phenomenon developed by modern Western culture to meet a new context that is current and decolonial. Through a literature review on the formation of aesthetics and art history disciplines, this study addresses the meaning of art as an image that forms contemporary ideals for a sustainable world, valuing differences as a proposal for the revision of the knowledge established by the Western world and considering new narratives focused on visual culture studies for the formation of an inclusive history of art. To this end, the effects of this new context are discussed through the aesthetic experience regarding the challenges of knowledge construction by reviewing the central values of Western culture. Therefore, it is assumed necessary to interpret the cultural transformations through the arts concerning material, ethical, and aesthetic changes involving historical consciousness and new humanities knowledge developments in Western and non-Western environments.