How would despotism (tyranny) in modern democratic nations be different from despotism in ancient empires?

Jackson pollock described his art style in the following quote: “new needs need new techniques.… it seems to me that the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the renaissance or of any other past culture. each age finds its own technique.” what point is pollock making about the new styles of art?