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Art is NOT above love and happiness.
Posted by Rivy • 7/25/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: anger, art, beauty, expression, love, truth
Why is Art so often tagged "beauty" and "love"? This is an argument that has engaged me often during my 70 years lifetime, most of it engaged as an artist.
Art is about life. Tragedy. Heartbreak. Fear. Betrayal. Hope. Disappointment. Lust. Anger. Frustration. Desire...on and on and on. Life.
Shakespeare did not concentrate on sunflowers. Soothing winds. The sweet curve of a baby's smile. Yes, these might occur - as such does in life - in his plays, his poetry, but it was NOT the focus of his life's work. He engages us with stories of incest, broken dreams, failed promises...on and on as mentioned above.
Our bibles, our legends, our stories, our earliest cave paintings, our operas, songs, are ALL about life. Hunting. Killing. Ritual deaths. Rise to power. he ALL of life!
And beauty and love, tragically, is only a part, a small part, of our total life experience. Boredom. Resentment. Anger. Revenge. On and on. Prevails.
From Munch's "The Scream" to Ginsberg's "Howl" art is about LIFE.
So, the question is - for this discussion - why, WHY, do we continually classify "art" as simply "love" and "beauty"?
I will not be answering individual posts, but hopefully this is a topic that may have reflective answers.
Thank you.
User Comments
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Oops. Meant to say art is not ABOUT love & happiness. And probably shouldn't have but NOT in caps. Oh, well (ah, wail), in any case the topic has not triggered any responses.
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There are many artists who think art is just about Art and not about life at all. The theories are boundless. You have your Goyas and Hieronymous Boschs and your Renoirs and Matisses. The ocean is big; there's room for everybody. -
oh but there are soooo many paintings that evoke LOVE...
Love the artist had for the subject.
Inspiration of love - hunger... thirst... lust for it...
I've seen artwork of men drawing the love of the female anatomy - and making it beautiful. And it is dripping of the essence of the love the artist held for a moment in his or her eye... of the other person.
I have seen artists paint memories of love...
Or paint memories of houses and places they held dear.
So Art is EVERYTHING - EVERY part...
And each person interprets their own view.
So there is no correct answer. IT IS ALL.
LOL! -
Art is an expression of whatever the artist wants to express - be it darkness or light! Don't you think LOVE pervades even in tragedies? When I create an abstract art painting, it is always mystical and spriritual!-
Very true. Well, and in the case of Shakespearean or Greek tragedy, without love and beauty there is no tragedy. No pity for a terrible and ugly person to whom terrible and ugly things happen.
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I agree. I think love is a vastly over-done topic in art. I would agree completely that art reflects life in its entirety, not just love. -
@ismsandologies
You're new here, Welcome!-
Thank you! I've been pleasantly surprised thus far.
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I think...I don't know if i get kicked for saying this . Some people think that by being an artist, one is excused to be obnoxious. I think that people who do that ,musicians especially ;should be whacked on the head with the the leg of a grand piano..eeerrr including the body of the grand piano.What I am trying to say is that ART is not everything. Being a loving person still matters.because Art is NOT above love and happiness.-
Celtic-I agree one hundred per cent. Character is more important than talent, and life is more important than art. Here's a Montaigne quote I love:
"It is our duty to compose our character not books, and to win not provinces and battles but order and tranquility for our conduct of life." -
@nothingprofound that Montaigne quote does put a nail in everything relating to human character.
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Perhaps it is because many don't understand what motivates the creative process and resulting art and have the impression that art is supposed to represent only love or beauty or serve humanity in some noble way. -
I posted at the beginning the correct word was "about" instead of "above." Yes, art is about love. Beauty. All of life. The point I wanted to make is the "all" - life, death, hope, failure, good, evil, beauty, ugliness. Etc. I was talking about the work of art itself, not judging the character of the creator. Artists are people. Selfish. Loners. Braggarts. Obnoxious. Polite. Make one's own list.
My main subject was why is Art so commonly tagged to "beauty" and "love" when its primary take is the ALL of life? And I use the word "art" to include creative forms from words to music to imagery, and on.
Thanks for the comments.-
Rivy. Picasso said: "I have a horror of the word beauty. One should speak about problems in art." So there's another approach.
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I imagine if the art is tagged "beauty" and "love" because the piece meant to convey "beauty" and "love". Tagging is generally as specific as possible, and many artists focus on those emotions over all the other ones — e.g., life, death, hope, failure, good, evil, beauty, ugliness.
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ART Is, Which Do Not Know Its Purpose And Is Not Ashamed Of It!
Art Is As Bohemian As Integral. IT Has Its Own Realm. Alone IT Builds, Stands, And Stays! A Fortress. And Always Immortal.-
A Self-Imposed Clarification On: "ART Is, Which Do Not Know Its Purpose"
-> Yes, IT Itself Do Not Know Its Purpose, But Magnificently Serves One!
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I think its a perfect way to express emotions, when words fail you.
Take Salvador Dali, he was a deeply disturbed man, with fantastic art.
It's the depressing ones that are the best too. -
Yawn! -
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. :-) Art is about so many things, including beauty and love. There is no simple definition.
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