What word would you suggest we use, Derek ?
Those of us who also call these pieces "fascinating, powerful, haunting, and
disturbing" --- but also find them much more attractive than a lot of other
things that we would also describe as such.
*****************
And what quality would you say those prints had more of -- when you saw them
in the exhibition --- which they did not have in books of reproduction?
******************
Derek wrote:
There is an exhibition of Goya's etchings at the Petit Palais in Paris at
the moment. Anyone (such as umpteen contemporary aestheticians I have read)
who is still wedded to the 18th century idea that art is explicable in terms
of beauty should spend some time looking - really looking - at Goya's
etchings, especially the Caprices and the Disparates. If he/she comes away
still wedded to the same idea, then in my view he/she should give up talking
about visual art altogether. It is just not their thing. Goya's works are
fascinating, powerful, haunting, and disturbing, but one thing they are
certainly not - and very very obviously make no attempt to be - is
beautiful. The very word seems ridiculous - derisory - in their presence.
With a bit of time left I wandered through the rest of the Petit Palais and
saw their permanent exhibition. In one corner of a large gallery there is
perhaps the most sickly Bouguereau I have ever seen - a Virgin with Angels
all encased in a suitably ornate gilded frame. After the Goyas it was ...
how was it? - like listening to one of those awful cloying melodies from
Sound of Music after listening to Mozart or Monteverdi, or being forced to
read some sickly romance novel after reading Dostoyevsky.
If your famous search for 'a.e's' has anything to do with beauty, Cheerskep
and Chris, forget it. Much of the world's greatest art has nothing at all
to do with beauty. Goya for a start.
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