Essay on What is Beauty in Art?
Each person is an artist in his soul. We are all created to create something new and inspiring; something that will change us, and change the world, make it better and reveal its true sense and meaning.
Art is the meaning of communication from the person to the audience. People can use different mediums to say something, but they should do that skillfully. We usually judge works of art through our frame of reference which takes into consideration out educational and family background, nationality, religion, sex, and many other factors. It is hard for professional painters to judge other paintings not starting with the technical side of the work, style, brushwork. And the notion of beauty can be different as well. As if the painter says that the work is beautiful, he can emphasize on technical irreproachability, while the common person will not see the soul in it and for him it will just be a dull reflection of the subject.
Beauty in art is eternal, it stands the probation of time and nobody has any doubts regarding its present in the work of art, if it is truly there. But the question of beauty in art is very controversial and relative. Art, as it is the means of communication, should not be beautiful, it should reflect the idea of the artist, carry material for thinking or reveal artist’s creativity and new angle of view. Of course it is very simple to claim that works of art should inspire, make world better and gift spiritual enrichment. In reality art is very much connected with public relations and public opinions. It is all about authorities to decide what to be considered beautiful works of art. And people, in their majority, blindly watch through painting, nod, rubbing the chin and exclaim: “The new genius is born!” Critics sometimes tend to overestimate the importance of creativity and new approaches in art.
As an example what I consider to be the beautiful work of art, I would like to mention El Greco, “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz”(Image 1) and Ivan Shishkin, “Rain in an Oak Forest” (Image 2). Paintings are completely different, but are equally beautiful and genuine in their subject matter feeling, harmony or design and sense of color.
On the other hand when I look at Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror” and Warhol’s “The Last Supper”, I understand they do not match the traditional understanding of the beauty, relieve of lines and color choice. I don’t consider those pictures beautiful, but on the other hand they carry much more then a beauty to the viewers. In the Picasso’s work “the image of a woman confronting her mortality in a mirror, which reflects her as a death’s head. On the right, the mirror reflection suggests a supernatural x-ray of the girl’s soul, her future, her fate. Her face is darkened, her eyes are round and hollow, and her intensely feminine body is twisted and contorted. She seems older and more anxious”.
“The Last Supper”, according to Claudia Schmuckli, Curatorial Assistant of the Warhol’s Exhibition, with its advertising logos on the figures of the Apostles and Christ is revealing the meaning of sacred and profane, high art and commercial design.
I can agree or disagree, but this would change nothing. We are living in the epoch of transformation and new times will bring new geniuses of art. My only desire is that they be from God and not by-products of commercialization.
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