Conflict Theory

to understand the emergence of the art movement known as abstract

It is clear, as Broom and Selznick point out, that society

and social dynamics are composed of both consensus and conflict.

If there were only consensus, there would be no change whatsoever in society, which is as much as saying that there would be

no movement, no life. On the other hand, if there were nothing

but conflict, society would simply not hold together, but would

come apart at the seams and deteriorate into chaos and anarchy

in short order. The change in society which gave rise to the

movement of abstract expressionism was the result of this clash

between conflict and consensus, between the relative harmony

which followed the madness of World War II, and the sense of

instability and anxiety which was let loose by the war and its

The conflict approach to the study and understanding of society is opposed to the consensus approach. The consensus approach holds that "major social change...come(s) rather slowly and to depend on large-scale shifts in attitude and belief.

Hence, consensus has a somewhat conservative overtone. ...The

conflict approach, on the other hand, holds that the most important aspect of social order is the domination of some groups by others, that society is best understood as an arena of actual and potential conflict, and that when things look peaceful, it

. . .
ough the degree of control is clearly greater in the latter case. The media is at first hostile to the most radical artistic expression, but later, after that art has lost much of its radical impact, the same media embraces the surface elements of the art, and actively popularizes it. Abstract expressionism found its way into advertising in various guises, but by that time the movement had lost its impact and had been overtaken by the cynicism of Pop Art. While it lasted, however, abstract expressionism was indeed an outpouring of the conflict between the surface tranquility of prosperous, post-war America and the monsters of modern society that had been unleashed by the war and by the growing influence of technology and all its polluting and desensitizing consequences. Abstract expressionism served the role of prophecy for what was to come, but it was not prophecy in the sense that the abstract expressionists intellectually analyzed the era and rationally concluded the course that events would inevitably follow. To the contrary, the abstract expressionists, for the most part, were passionate individuals who saw the superficiality and pretense of what passed for reality in the post-war world, and they sought to ex
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 4330
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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