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These polar concerns ( imitation vs. formalism ) reflect a philosophical and religious situation which has been developing over a long period of time.

The breakdown of classical structures of meaning in all realms of western culture has given rise to several generations of artists who have documented the disintegrative processes.

Thus the image of man has suffered complete fragmentation in personal and spiritual qualities, and complete objectification in sub-human and quasi-mechanistic powers.

The image of the world tends to reflect the hostility and indifference of man or else to dissolve into empty spaces and overwhelming mystery.

The image of God has simply disappeared.

All such imitations of negative quality have given rise to a compensatory response in the form of a heroic and highly individualistic humanism: if man can neither know nor love reality as it is, he can at least invent an artistic `` reality '' which is its own world and which can speak to man of purely personal and subjective qualities capable of being known and worthy of being loved.

The person of the artist becomes a final bastion of meaning in a world rendered meaningless by the march of events and the decay of classical religious and philosophical systems.