Beauty is assailed by two directions, by the cult of ugliness in the arts and by the cult of utility in everyday life. These two cults come together in the world of modern architecture -Roger Scrutton, in part 2 at 6:45
"Form follows function" - Louis Sullivan
This returns me to Oscar Wilde's remark that all art is useless. Put usefulness first and you lose it. Put beauty first and what you do will be useful forever. It turns out that nothing is more useful than the useless..
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Posts
1 comment:
I'm sorry I don't have time to watch these videos this week. Maybe next week...
When I think of the question, "What is art?" I think of a quote (forgot from where) that goes something like, It used to be the prophets who showed us what was too wonderful or horrible for the rest of us to imagine, but in today's secular world it falls to the artist.
There does seem to be a lot of ugly, angry art these days that's not enjoyable to look at. I just assume the artists are seeing things I'm not -- and that's pretty bad, considering what a morbid imagination I have!
Blue Ash Mom
Post a Comment