I've been thinking a lot lately about how things in popular culture, typically follow cyclical paths. The easiest example for this is clothing. The early 2000s saw a movement into large, overfitted baggy clothes. After the turn of the decade, the skinny jeans, preppy-fied look became the buzz, where eventually we saw the return of baggy clothing and retro styles in the covid era. This generally holds true for most things in popular culture: humor*, political correctness, music, etc.
But I don't yet see this phenomenon in artwork. My napkin theory for this is that art needs a medium, and the medium is always rapidly evolving. Even in the "physical painting" sense of art, oil to watercolor, to print press, I'd put each into it's own era and medium of art. But at the end of the day, we don't see repeats.
(few minutes pass in writing) Maybe the above is a lie in that that artistic styles never fall into trends. And what I'm referring to in cultural cycles, are really just "trends". Things that come and go depending on the zeitgest. Art in the broader sense finds itself immune to trends. Trends in cinema seem to come and go, but don't circle back(?? i dont watch cinema much). In the 2020s age, cinematic trends on tiktok/reels never really have a resurrection cycle.
*working on a piece that goes into more detail on this