I'm reluctant to accept works that don't have an aesthetic quality to them as art. All said and done, there's got to be something different, something unique, about art and that which makes art stand out as an independent category of human activity is its focus on the beautiful. Now it isn't absolutely necessary for an artist to depict the beauty of nature to the exclusion of other dimensions that reality has to offer. An artist could choose anything under the sun and turn it into a work of art but only if fae manages to make beauty an integral part of it. This is what I meant by beautification.
As for the sacred, it's beautiful and all that the artist needs to do is reproduce a faithful copy - I suppose this is what you mean by realistic art. The profane, however, is going to need more work from the artist for the immediate gut reaction to it is going to be that of disgust and revulsion. Given such circumstances, the artist has a mountain to climb in turning the sacrilegious into art for it involves turning what is, any way you cut it, hideously ugly into something that's a sight for sore eyes. — TheMadFool
If art isn't about beauty what is it about then? "Attract attention" is vague enough to include almost anything. — TheMadFool
Not just ‘attract attention’, but attention and effort towards understanding - this is how we learn about the world. A ‘judgement of beauty’ is part of this — Possibility
what do you think about the whole issue of aesthetics in works of literature? — Jack Cummins
I am a fan of gothic fiction — Jack Cummins
I do like your comment. — Jack Cummins
Most people I know who try to make money through various arts cannot make enough money to live and have to have another job, or be topped up with benefits. So, where does that leave most people wanting to pursue the arts? Does it end having to be just a hobby' — Jack Cummins
But I will confess that I have downloaded many books on my Kindle. I have managed to get so many of the classics free, and a lot of the authors are not living ones. — Jack Cummins
So I am left wondering how do we change a culture which expects the arts as a free extra? — Jack Cummins
Studies have shown that participating in music and art can alleviate pain, help people manage stress, promote wellness, enhance memory, improve communications, aide physical rehabilitation, and give people a way to express their feelings.Mar 22, 2018
or art and music therapy helps teens - USA Today — Reginal E. Payne II, Jayne O'Donnell and Marquart Doty,
I don't have any straightforward answer for this. Still, culture is constituted of individuals. The relation between the top-down effects culture has on individuals and those individuals have upon a culture is complex, to put it mildly. Bare minimum I can do, I'm thinking, is preserve my own way of valuing things as a constituent of the culture I am a part of. And of course, engage in conversations such as this. There's too much egotism that accompanies the prevailing materialist perspectives of the day, I'm thinking. Again, with this materialism being perpetuated by the overwhelming sum of (commercial) art we are exposed to. This, in turn, entailing not enough thought as regards others and what they require to produce those things that enrich our own lives. And this is a hard tide to turn, especially in the short run. — javra
In a post yesterday I was saying that it is very sad that people are starting to expect books, music and other works for free, without appreciating of the artists' need to make money to live.
However, what you are saying about community arts is very important. I do believe that children and adults should have access to being able to participate in art based activities. Just before lockdown I was attending a creative writing group at a library and had just discovered an art group, which I attended once, in a museum. These were free. I do believe that it is important that people, children and adults, are provided to have access to the arts. It is such an outlet for people and I hope that after the pandemic these groups will be part of culture. I would also hope that there is public funding for such activities, rather than them just having to be staffed by volunteers. — Jack Cummins
Not just ‘attract attention’, but attention and effort towards understanding - this is how we learn about the world. A ‘judgement of beauty’ is part of this
— Possibility
Go on...
What do you mean by "...effort towards understanding..."? This phrase seems more suited for a philosophical article than art. — TheMadFool
I am deeply disturbed by the way people seem to object to having to pay for the arts. When I have conversed with some others who seem to think that I waste my money in this ways, they have gone as far as to suggest that artists should not expect to make their money and do jobs and do art as an extra. So I am left wondering how do we change a culture which expects the arts as a free extra? — Jack Cummins
That’s a start. Aesthetic quality is based on feelings not just of pleasure but also of displeasure — Possibility
If artists want to do pure art, art for art's sake, then they indeed must not expect to make money off of it.But I am deeply disturbed by the way people seem to object to having to pay for the arts. When I have conversed with some others who seem to think that I waste my money in this ways, they have gone as far as to suggest that artists should not expect to make their money and do jobs and do art as an extra. — Jack Cummins
By putting pressure on the artists, because the problem starts with them. They need to stop wanting to sit on two chairs.So I am left wondering how do we change a culture which expects the arts as a free extra?
↪Athena
The Enlightenment was never complete. Certainly, there was a rebuttal of absolute religious authority, the divine rights of kings, and a movement toward democracy and sovereignty invested in the people. But philosophy, literature and film have merely confirmed the Church's position on science - as a heresy, established with the trial of Galileo in 1634.
Sure, science can be used to surround us with technological miracles, but is afforded no respect or authority. From Descartes' subjectivism, to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - 1818, right through to present day blockbuster films - all we see is the mad scientist, stringing together some world ending abomination unto God; depicted as either a careless fool or an evil genius - that only the flag waving, God loving hero can save us from.
But here's the problem, the climate and ecological crisis is a consequence of applying technology as directed by ideology - rather than, applying technology as suggested by a scientific understanding of reality. It's not a matter of morality - it's a matter of truth, and science has proven the truth of its ideas endlessly with technology that works.
But hey, maybe if we pray hard enough - snap off a few more salutes to the old skull and crossbones, climate change will just go away! — counterpunch
Cicero believed that reason is the highest good, for “what is there, I will not say in man, but in the whole of heaven and earth, more divine than reason?” 12 The importance of reason is emphasized because it is present both in humanity and in God.Aug 31, 2018
Cicero's Natural Law and Political Philosophy | Libertarianism ...
I know that understanding is important but that goes for everything not just art and so understanding as a notion fails to distinguish art from non-art. — TheMadFool
For my money, if there's an essence to art, it has to be beauty, and while it may or may not be possible to grasp beauty, art is simply experiencing beauty and not studying or analyzing it i.e. art is not about understanding anything but rather the act of beholding that which is aesthetically endowed.
To make my point clearer, there's understanding and then there's understanding beautifully. For instance, some mathematical theorems have more than one proof and some of them may be long-winded, many pages long and fail to capture the core ideas behind the theorems while others, the artistic ones, are succint, and reveals a deep insight of the theorems. Aesthetics and understanding are different things. — TheMadFool
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.