Beauty & Sublimity Talk

An Art Talk and seminar I lead as visting artist to UW Graduate Painting Program, 2009. We discussed the introduction and the last chapter, Beauty and Sublimity in Arthur C. Danto's book, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the concept of Art. 2003

What was the perspective of 18th Century Thinkers on Beauty and the Sublime?

• Beauty was integral with taste which was a sign of cultivation, through schooling. This was a continuation of traditional Renaissance notions of balance, proportion and harmony.
• By contrast the sublime was enthusiasmos, or as Kant described as a sense of wonderment and awe.
• Burke, "the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of" often related to fear

How did mid 20th C- Avant-garde intellectuals and artists view Beauty and sublime?

• They saw the world in terms of polar opposites a consequence of society being split into the two classes of the bourgeoisie and proletariat.
• Newman saw the history of art as an aesthetic struggle between "the exaltation to be found in perfect form" and on the other side "the desire to destroy form, where form can be formless." It is he argues the "the impulse of modern art to destroy beauty"
• His motivation and thoughts occurred after creating one of his most important works', Onement I, which he thought it too momentous an achievement to connect with beauty, and thought it conveyed the idea of sublime.
• Therefore the sublime was in polar contrast to the beautiful.

Newman goes on to create a polarity between European Art and American Sublime? What distinctions does he make, and do you agree with him?

• The failure of European Art to achieve the sublime is due to this blind desire to build an art within a framework of the Greek ideal of beauty. This is because European art was unable to move away from the Renaissance imagery of figures and objects except by distortion or by denying it completely for an empty world of geometric formalisms.
• American Sublime are free from weight of European culture by denying that art has any concern with the problem of beauty and where to find it.
• Motherwell contributes that, one of the major American contributions to modern art is sheer size." Which adds a sense of grandeur and awe, or sublime.

Given this historical context, what are some of your thoughts on the sublime? Do these perspectives fit into your beliefs, or are there other possibilities that lead to your own definition or understanding of the sublime?

In the Introduction Danto talks about how Pop Art, specifically Andy Warhol's Brillo boxes brought up the question of how it was possible for Warhol's boxes to be works of art, while their counterparts in everyday life were but utilitarian containers with no artist presentation whatsoever. At first aesthetics didn't play a part in it for Danto, since the boxes seemed to be resemble one another identically. As a result, aesthetics dropped out of the equation. But then in comparing them to the other reproductions of other products, the Brillo boxes craftsmanship and design shined over the others, thus he concludes aesthetics did play a role.

This brings up the important point that there is a doubtless psychology of everyday aesthetics and that we have to work out our own laws of aesthetic preferences and learn what they are.

What is your definition of beauty?

Do you see evidence, or a lack of Beauty in Contemporary art?

• Do concerns of beauty, or the sublime have an integral role in your work?
• If not, what are your concerns and questions you are addressing?

Beauty and Sublimity in Mimesis Vs. Abstraction/ Newman, Kant and Danto pg. 149-150

The art Kant knew was all representational, and though sublime things can be represented, they cannot be represented as sublime.

"The beautiful in nature is connected with the form of the object, which consists in having definite boundaries." (based on condition of drawing)

The sublime by contrast "Is to be found in a formless object, so far as in it or by occasion of it boundlessness is represented, and yet its totality is also present to thought."

Newman agrees with Kant in that "The sublime of art is always limited by the conditions of agreement with nature."

Danto says that the difference between Beauty and Sublime is that the beautiful can be represented as beautiful.

On the other hand, sublimity cannot be pictured and is internally related to size and vastness. He adds that fear may sometimes be a factor, but is not a necessity component as much as wonder is.

Danto believes that the beautiful is the sublime Quoting Nabokov "The marvel of consciousness- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amid the night of non being

"Beauty is an option for art and not a necessary condition. But it is not an option for life. It is a necessary condition for life as would want to live it. That is why beauty, unlike the other aesthetic qualities, the sublime included, is a value."

"a value like truth, goodness. It is not simply among the values we live by, but one of the values that define what a fully human life means."