Can something as gross as a Picasso produce an aesthetic feeling wherein one is arrested in beauty? Obviously there is no beauty in asymmetrical concoctions so that the aesthetic experience must be modified to an arrestment of a myriad of internalized experiences or nightmares of the viewer. This may seem presumptuous in light of the esteem of this artist as arguably proclaimed the finest artist of the 20th century. Still, traditionally art was deemed beautiful when it imitated and exceeded perceptions of ordinary life. When craftsmen were motivated to produce instruments that could capture the sounds of their neighborhood or accompany the songs and verse that were sung or spoken, along with capturing the meter and rhythm, pleasurable, and sometimes cacophonic music was born.
Drama was invented to put dance, music and poetry in concert with the actions of humankind with the recognition that conflict was inevitable in dealing with the dark side of humans. Tragedy as well as the obvious pleasures of comedy were to be seen by Aristotle as the need for laughter and tears — the pleasure and relief of lighthearted buffoonery, and the release or catharsis of pent up pity and terror. This opened up the depiction of the ugly in painting and sculpture, still the common practice was to portray the ideal of beauty.
When photography took hold to represent virtual reality, artists in the main internalized their bias of observation in forms of impressionism and surrealism, thus reflecting more of themselves, rather than the object. Poetry, too, devolved in a similar manner by throwing off the classic discipline of versifying upon an objective world to that of romantic poetry and free verse to voice the impressions of the poets themselves in lieu of dramatic and narrative action.
Contrary to the classical view that there be a kind of veneration or horrific reaction to cleanse the meanness from the soul within the aesthetic experience, art today — with few exceptions — has reached the consummation that the less discipline in all art forms the better in order to touch the primitive vestige of sadomasochism, ruthlessness, and satiric, prurient comedy. Yea unto chainsaw massacres, foul mouthed comedians, and graffiti.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: March 29, 2004.