Why would anyone wish to visit an imaginary "world that has lost its soul, a
terrible, terrible world..." ?
In Christian or Buddhist imagery, such hellish scenes serve to remind the
believer of the consequences of lost faith, misdirection, or bad behavior.
Or - perhaps a secular novel -- like "Crime and Punishment" -- will enter such
a world -- to then offer the possibility of redemption.
But where is the redemption or faith in these horrible images?
Again -- why would anyone want to go there?
********************
And now -- if I may speculate on Derek's reply -- I'm guessing that his
replay could take two possible directions:
1. "Because it's great art" (although, of course, no explanation will
accompany that assertion. BTW -- not everyone makes such claims about art is
as reluctant as Derek to explain them -- but it seems that the Hegelians and
post-Hegelians who specialize in that kind of discourse have abandoned our
listserv as too uneducated. They can really only talk among each other)
2. "What's the matter, what are you afraid of? -- why do all images have to be
beautiful?" -- or some such challenge that will avoid the question.
Meanwhile -- we already have Mando's reply --- which is that these works
display "talent ,freedom, uniqeness,spontaneity, control, intensity, knowledge
of form".
"spontaneity, control, intensity, knowledge of form" -- are all qualities that
I would call aesthetic - and are what the art teachers on this list could
explain if they cared to.
"freedom, uniqueness" --- would be determined by comparison with other images
-- and so I would also call that aesthetic - but more the province of an art
historian rather than an art teacher.
"talent" --- I'm not sure what Mando had in mind there -- but it would seem to
just indicate the ability to achieve the aesthetic qualities mentioned above
-- which, I feel, serve as a kind of redemption for the
terribleness being shown.
That's certainly why I enjoy some of these terrible images -- whether it's
Grunewald's tortured Christ or Munch's screamer -- because they're taking the
worst of human experience and making it beautiful -- which makes it feel
meaningful - manageable.
And I don't think any of us are lucky or rich enough to avoid occasional -- or
even continuous? -- contact with death, decay, loss, cruelty, despair,and
depravity.
(on the other hand -- I'd love to be invited to party with the rich, healthy,
successful, happy, beautiful people -- filled with music, beautiful clothes,
sexy women and brave-handsome men -- so yes, I love to visit the world of
Veronese -- which I think is just as "unique, spontaneous, free ...etc" as
anything I've ever seen)
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