“Why Beauty?”
An art collector left me an interrogating voicemail a few weeks ago asking why I've been making "beautiful" collages.
Taken aback by this message, I took some time to reflect. After all, isn't art supposed to be beautiful? Was I making ugly art before?
I think what this collector was recognizing was a deliberate shift in my artwork. I've begun using techniques like flowers and bright colors to employ Beauty. Now that I've had some time to think about his question, I want to explain why.
You see, modern art galleries are full of "Ugly" art that is viewed as "Beautiful" because the artwork contains "Truth," which is in turn seen as "Good."
This example brings us to the three fundamental concepts of human understanding in classical philosophy:
1. Goodness
2. Truth
3. Beauty
To me, Beauty is the most interesting of the three. You see, Beauty has a subjective, objective, and relational value. This complexity is fascinating.
Nature - a sunset, for example, is empirically beautiful.
We've all had our own subjective experience of Beauty.
However, Beauty doesn't only have subjective and objective value; it also has relative value.
A cut diamond is empirically beautiful, but what about when it's placed next to another bigger, brighter diamond? There is a relational hierarchy to Beauty.
I'm trying to achieve harmony between subjective and empirical Beauty while attempting to outdo myself with each college creating one more Beautiful than the last.
There is tension in this triad of value that I think I can explore. I want to use my experience with these values to trust my intuition.
Making beautiful art, for me, is a revolution.
I don't mean that I'm identifying myself as a "Revolutionary." I think that the best part about Beauty is that it needs ugly to exist. I don't need to be against ugliness to create beautiful work.
What I mean is that a revolution is a 360-degree angle.
The revolution is not a new direction but a return to normal. It's a return to a time when I started making art as a young man. A time when I would feel my way through the sense of awe and wonder as I play with compositions that gave me aesthetic satisfaction.
Now that I have the technical skill and real-world knowledge as an adult, I think it's valuable for me to focus on "play-time." This artwork is the magic elixir that I have to offer you in exchange for your attention.
I hope you find these collages beautiful and that they can inspire a sense of awe.
