Let's Talk History

Less about the making of images which is ancient and nearly universal but more about the NOT making of them.  The NOT making images is also a fascinating, deep dive into human culture tradtition and understanding. 

When we talk about the history of "not making images," we are talking about aniconism or iconoclasm. The term iconoclasm literally means "image-breaking" and is rooted in two Ancient Greek words: eikon (image/icon) and klan (to break).

Throughout history, this wasn't just about a lack of artistic skill; it was a deliberate choice—often religious or political—to avoid provocation of the Spiritual world or political through representing sentient beings or the divine. 

1. Religious Aniconism

Many major world religions have had periods where they strictly avoided "graven images":

• Judaism: Based on the Second Commandment, there has historically been a push to avoid depicting God or human figures to prevent idolatry.

• Islam: Generally avoids the depiction of living beings (especially God and Prophets) in religious spaces, leading to the incredible development of geometric patterns and calligraphy as alternative art forms.

• Early Christianity: In the 8th and 9th centuries (the Byzantine Iconoclasm), and later Reformation there  massive, sometimes violent movement to destroy icons, fearing people were worshipping the image rather than the Spirit. 

2. The Philosophy of "The Void"

In Eastern traditions like Zen Buddhism, the focus often shifted away from the "object" and toward the "space" around it. In these contexts, not painting something was just as important as painting it. The "image" was seen as a distraction from the ultimate reality, which is formless. The non permanance of sand paintings reminded us the passing of everything.

3. Modern Minimalist & Conceptual Art

In the 20th century, artists started "not making images" as a rebellion against traditional art:

• Kasimir Malevich painted a Black Square to reach "the edge of nothingness."

• Robert Rauschenberg famously erased a drawing by Willem de Kooning, making the "act of removal" the art itself.

• Ad Reinhardt spent years painting "ultimate" black canvases that looked like nothing at first glance, forcing the viewer to just be with the canvas. 

 All these "refusals" to make images span from the religious taboos to modern artistic rebellions.

While it often starts with religion, the "prohibition" of images has powerful political, psychological, and even digital motivations.The idea isn't just about avoiding "idolatry" in a church or mosque; it’s often a deeper resistance to how images can control, simplify, or deceive us. 

Here are some ways the "no image" rule goes beyond the altar:

• Political Power & Control: Dictators or regimes often ban images of their enemies or specific historical events to control the narrative. If there is no image of a person or an event, it is much easier to make people forget they ever existed. Conversely, iconoclasm (the destruction of statues) is a common way for a new government to "erase" the previous era.

• The "Scopic" Antidote: In our modern world of "scopic capitalism," we are bombarded by thousands of digital images daily. Some modern thinkers argue that the ancient "prohibition" is actually a healthy psychological defense—a way to protect our attention and prevent us from being "owned" by the infinite scroll of screens.

• Truth vs. Representation: There is an old philosophical argument that an image is a "lie." By making an image of something, you are reducing a complex, living thing to a static, flat object. For some, "not making an image" is an act of intellectual honesty—admitting that some things (like human dignity or the "infinite") are too big to be captured in a photo or painting.

• The "Act of Creation" Conflict: In some cultures, the prohibition is about the human ego. The idea is that only a "Creator" should bring life-like things into the world; for a human to do it is seen as an act of vanity or an attempt to "compete" with nature.

• Iconoclasm also has a secular history known as damnatio memoriae (the condemnation of memory). From Ancient Egypt to the French and Russian Revolutions, new regimes have frequently toppled statues of previous leaders to "break" their influence over the public mind

While the Ancient Greeks are famous for their art, they did have specific cultural "taboos" and hierarchies that favored some forms of representation over others. It wasn't a total prohibition like religious aniconism, but rather a belief that certain mediums were "truer" than others.

   The "Lie" of 2D Painting (Plato’s Taboo)

The most famous Greek "prohibition" came from the philosopher Plato. He argued that 2D painting was a "double lie" or a "shadow of a shadow."

• The Logic: If a chair is a physical copy of the "Ideal Form" of a chair, then a painting of that chair is a third-hand imitation.

• The Taboo: Plato actually proposed banning most visual artists from his ideal city (The Republic) because he believed images deceived the soul and stirred up irrational emotions rather than logic

Not only is the space around us altered but the idea of time itself has varied. In October 1960, the General Conference on Weights and Measures officially decoupled "The Second" from the rotation of the Earth. By shifting from the Ephemeris Second (observed shadow) to the Atomic Second (calculated frequency), they moved the world into a POV Cage. Time was no longer something humans observed via a Gnomon; it became a digital signal delivered by a central authority.