Art for Arts Sake?
Dear reader, before i begin my tirade of self
assured blathering i would ask you to hold this question in your mind
before you let your eyes scan further across the pre-mentioned text.
What is Beauty? By which i mean what is it to you personally and also
what is it to society? How do we view and value it?
Beauty for no sake except its own is the only form
worth pursuing, when beauty has a dual purpose it detracts form itself,
let me explain further as i realize i have launched into my thoughts
without taking the time to go into detail. If a beautiful object such
as a painting or sculpture or a fine building has a primary or
secondary function other than to be beautiful it ceases to be so, and
thus falls into the well worn trap of being merely practical.
Many people suppose that all beauty can have a
purpose, A flower is comely to attract bees, as is a female to attract
males at first glance it would well seem that every natural beauty has
a purpose or a side agenda which was in place firstly thus leading to
the need for a form of beauty, and so mankind emulates his perceived
surroundings and assigns all beauty a sub-task for which its beauty is
just the mode of delivery for its purpose or job. If this is deemed to
be true then beauty must have no value in itself and therefore cannot
truly be beautiful. Man finds it almost impossible to create something
of beauty without attaching to it a subtle meaning or silent message.
The human race feels lost and shudders to think of a purposeless
universe twirling and pulsating in all its perfect majesty for no other
reason than IT IS. A good example is Mona Lisa's smile by which i mean
the painting not the much later but also very brilliant movie, Back to
the painting of the Mona Lisa, most of us rather than look upon it and
say to ourselves she is as she is, we look for a hidden meaning in that
most beautiful smile, a hint of sadness? a glint of buried despair
perhaps?
Mans natural love of creating beauty is governed
and oppressed by this need for functionality, a grand cathedral cannot
be built for its own sake, it must always be in homage to a god or gods
or idol, we view the beauty of women as the same in homage to another
whether man or woman but hardly ever for its own sake. Monuments of old
are scrutinized until a reason, any reason is found for the creation of
something of beauty for why would man create beauty unless it had a
hidden meaning? was symbolic? a purpose? and so man has limited itself
to what it can create it has to represent an existing symbol, theology,
mode of thought, house of power or cultural identity.
when will man ever create beauty for only itself
to be beautiful free from the mental block and conditioning, to put the
depths and intricacies of our minds and souls into physical matter
without the constraint of needing to represent or be symbolic or give a
message. We have sadly lost many fantastic and sublime minds to this
mode of thought for example Bernini the great sculptor himself who most
agree is a maker of beauty and pure emotion translated into delicate
marble was still for all his skill restricted by this when he began a
work he always started with a theme or thought such as pain, anguish,
ecstasy, or a person or event, but never did he simply start with one
word to guide his hand, beauty, his works are alas only a shadow of his
emotional strength they are the hollow shell of the beauty he could
have produced if free within himself, it is the same for many young
women today in a different sense but no less true.
Many misguided young women nowadays shape there
beauty to societies current perceptions of it or to the opposite sexes
proscribed ideas about modern beauty sadly almost never does she view
it through her own self effectively becoming a mere social mirror again
a brief fluttering reflection in the flickering lights of what her true
beauty is. Many advocate isolation to obtain a true understanding and
eye for beauty, there is great value in this as being isolated you have
no need of mirroring or projecting the thoughts of others such as the
media or the fashion houses into your concepts this is why many monks
and saints favoured hermitage it was much easier they found to connect
with the pure spiritual beauty of god free from expectations or
dogmatic notions.
All great people who create beauty have no sub
task for example. Two women Cleopatra and Marilyn Monroe, Cleopatra who
is know to have been in spirit and body very beautiful is often viewed
as ugly and immoral due to the fact that she used her beauty as a mere
political tool, while Marilyn Monroe who once proclaimed she didn't
wish to be rich or famous just wonderful is for all her imperfections
and so called dubious morals viewed as almost saint like as beauty
personified. Showing that the only way to create something truly
beautiful is to set out to do that and nothing but.
Anything else is a pointless endeavour a waste of
many a magnificent mind and always ends in failure by being a shadow of
what it could be. Let us embrace beauty for what it is there would be
no limit to what wonders we could achieve.
Thank you for taking the time to wade through this
article any comments whether for or against would be most welcome.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/
art-and-entertainment-articles/the-beauty-of-art-726371.html About the Author
| 