All About Art
Beauty is probably the most abused word in any language today. It has been written about by some of the best thinkers in history. St. Thomas Aquinas said, "Beauty is that which gives us pleasure when we behold it." Plato describes it as "unity, integrity and clarity." To Emmanuel Kant, it is "apprehending without moral concept."
The Hirschorn Museum in Washington, D.C., has taken the issue seriously enough to put on a show, "Regarding Beauty." Its catalog states that "beauty is a grading concept." Some of us may feel great pleasure by looking at the great works of a Mark Rothko or the all black-on-black paintings, feeling, perhaps something deeper than pleasure, which compels us to stand in front of a painting as if "waiting for the disclosure of a shattering truth."
But we need to examine whether beauty is solely a visual field, yielding an emotion , or if it is content or subject matter - that when the expectations are not met, provoke the very predictable response, "that's ugly!" In any case, it remains doubtful that the sweet, pretty or sentimental will nullify all other art. That would mean we would have to rid ourselves of such masterpieces as Michaelangelo's "Last Judgment," Goya's Black Paintings, the magnificently painted "The Death of Marat" by Jacques Louis David, not to mention the copious treasure of biblical paintings created during the Renaissance, because they describe unpleasant subject matter.
What is beauty? What is art? I'll wager each reader has a very clear and concise definition. I invite you to write to me on this subject or about any other art matter you think ought to be discussed.
NOTE: Elizabeth Dungan spoke Oct. 21 to members of the Packard Art Studio group. Dungan, a speaker at the New York Museum of Modern Art, compared Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.
Jean Packard is an artist, teacher and owner of the Packard Art Studio in Los Altos for contemporary art study.