The Good the Bad and the Beautiful

The Good the Bad and the Beautiful

Here are a few comments from Jane Ellen Harrison’s book, “Ancient Art and Ritual.”

The Good:

Page 14 …

The words she says, “Flax, grow,” prove the point.  She does what she wants done.  Her intense desire finds utterance in an act.

When a human either gestures or produces something of intent, it is uniquely human, and is a desire to impart or capture its beauty.  We might call it “the power of positive thinking” or an “intent statement” – but – it actually causes energy in our universe to shift and to support our wishes.

The Bad:

Page 9 …

Few people to-day, perhaps, regard art as the close and realistic copy of Nature;  photography has at least scotched, if not slain, that error;

I see the goal of art and of beauty to lift the human spirit.  And art – including photography – comes in many media.

·        Alfred Stieglitz’ photographs of pond lilies were textured so you could virtually taste them!

·        Ansel Adams’ Joshua tree photograph was framed to bring out a unique form he saw, and taken at the perfect moment for capturing light striking that tree.

·        Robert Maplethorpe created magnificent still-life flower compositions, with forms and colors that enrapture our senses.

It’s not the medium that defines whether or not it’s “art” – it’s what the artist does with the medium.

And The Beautiful:

Page 90:

One function, then, of art is to feed and nurture the imagination and the spirit, and thereby enhance and invigorate the whole of human life.  This is far removed from the view that the end of art is to give pleasure.  Art does usually cause pleasure, singular and intense, and to that which causes such pleasure, we give the name of Beauty.

Art is only one form of (and medium for helping us experience) beauty.  We might also experience a beautiful sunset, or a beautiful thought.  But this phrase captures the absolute essence of art and of beauty.

          Stu Rose