Beauty and Evil
How a Piece of Art Can Be Both And Why We Should Embrace That
Introduction
For as long as humankind has been around, humans have created and been engrossed with artwork. Art, whether in the form of music, paintings, movies, etc., can have multiple functions, including telling a story, providing a moral lesson, engaging our emotions, or just being entertainment. In a world as diverse and imperfect as ours is, an artist’s intentions and morals can be controversial and viewed negatively depending on the place and time in which his or her artwork is viewed. While all art has a place in society, not all art is equal in quality and morality, but those are not interchangeable terms; morality corrupt art can be beautiful and morally upstanding art can be of lesser quality. In this paper, I argue that a work of art can be both beautiful and evil at the same time, and that a piece of evil art can be just as important to society as a piece of wholesome art.
The Exposition Controversial pieces of art are nothing new; artists express their opinions and beliefs in their work, and those who see the artist’s views as problematic speak out against it. Art encourages debate, and debates can be angry and emotion-driven. But when a piece of art is created that is almost universality looked upon as having corrupt morals, the debate tends to switch “I disagree with what this art portrays” to, “this work of art should not be allowed in society, regardless of its quality.”
In today’s society, we are constantly being bombarded with visual art forms. Whether they be classical paintings from the Renaissance, a towering and modern skyscraper, or even a cheesy 90’s R&B music video, they all have one thing in common. According to Carolyn Dean’s definition, these would all fall under the category of “art by intention.” In her essay “The Trouble with (The Term) Art” she advocates a distinction between art by intention and what she deems “art by appropriation.” The difference is that one work was created with the intention of being consumed for visual pleasure, while the other was not. However having been educated in the Western school of thought, many art historians cannot help but project their rigid definition of art onto civilizations that may have
Around two months ago, I posted an image of Paul Gustave Dore’s 1869 oil on canvas, ‘Andromeda,’ to a large Internet forum called ‘Reddit.’ If you’re unfamiliar with the website ‘Reddit’, it is simply a site that is heavily run by the contribution of users, providing open discussions about specific ideas and news. To my amazement, the post made it to the front page, receiving much attention, but along with it came other ethical discussions that related to art as a general consensus and how the idea of ‘beauty’ has influenced current viewers with their expectations for museums and galleries.
In a world that has become immune to accepting all types of art, Marya Mannes believes we have lost our standards and ability to identify something as “good” or “bad”. In her essay, “How Do You Know It’s Good”, she discusses society’s tendency to accept everything out of fear of wrongly labelling something as being good or bad. She touches on various criteria to judge art, such as the artist’s purpose, skill and craftsmanship, originality, timelessness, as well as unity within a piece rather than chaos. She says that an individual must decide if something is good “on the basis of instinct, experience, and association” (Mannes). I believe that by using standards and the process of association, we will be able to judge what makes an art piece good in comparison to others. However, Mannes forces me to consider the difference between what may be appealing versus what is actually good, and when deciding which art we should accept, which is truly more important. I believe that “good” and “bad” are two ends of a large, subjective spectrum of grey area. It is possible for a piece of art to be good in some areas and bad in others, and if something does not live up to all of our standards, it does not necessarily mean it should be dismissed. Thus, I believe my personal standards for judging art are based on which my standards are largely based on the personal reaction evoked from a piece of art. Though I agree with Mannes’ standards to an extent, I believe that certain standards, such as evoking a personal response, can be more telling of if a piece of art is good as opposed to its timelessness, or the level of experience of an artist in his/her craft.
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America’s infatuation with labels was a relatively new trend in postmodern society. Andy Warhol’s “Silver Liz as Cleopatra” as well as his other pieces impacted societal views on modern art in relationship to value. Warhol had a strong belief that the loss of something in replicating an image was over powered by something of new value being created.
Is the controversial art a controversy or is it simply something that breaks the rules of everyday life? Is the artist's purpose to draw attention or is it actually to transmit a message through his/her artwork? Jose Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros is a Mexican artist who has created art with our favorite Disney characters and has painted them in uncommon situations.
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