Beauty is an important component of art. While most artworks may not be directly beautiful, they have qualities that please the senses and provide pleasure to the viewer. These qualities include color, size, shape, and weight.
As the twentieth century unfolded, thinkers struggled with the concept of beauty. Many found it difficult to reconcile its significance with the emergence of an age of war, genocide, and wastelands. Others thought the best way to approach beauty was through art. Although the modern art world often became a target of sabotage, the question of beauty is still not a dead question.
The oldest treatment of beauty dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. They often described the beauty of a thing in ecstatic terms. In particular, they paid tribute to the pleasures of beauty in the form of love, wonderment, and trembling.
In the era of the scientific revolution, the idea of beauty was examined by several theorists. Among them was Aristotle, who studied beauty as both a craftsman and a philosopher. Unlike Plato, Aristotle’s approach was dispassionate. His definition of beauty was akin to the classical conception: an object of beauty is one which satisfies the aesthetic senses.
Another good idea relating to beauty was the antinomy of taste. This was also a subject of much debate, with several theorists attempting to settle the dispute. David Hume, in his Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1758), argued against tyrannical notions of taste. He explained that beauty is not an objective quality in a thing but rather the result of the subjective experience of an individual.
During the early twentieth century, the concept of beauty was associated with the rich and famous. It was also associated with capitalism. This led to a debate about the role of the artist in the creation of beauty. Some argued that a great artist could disguise the suffering of the rich, as in the case of Gustave Courbet’s painting of the Triumph of Venus (1834).
In the last few decades, interest in the idea of beauty has been revived. A small part of the revival has been centered on the work of Dave Hickey. However, other theories have come to the fore as well, including the work of Peg Zeglin Brand and Arthur Danto. Despite these efforts, the topic of beauty remains a matter of personal discernment, with individual interpretations being the order of the day.
Despite the many arguments, there is no clear answer to the question of what is the best definition of beauty. However, the most appropriate answer may be that beauty is the process by which art provides pleasure to the senses. One could also argue that art is the act of creating something beautiful, whether that be a piece of sculpture or a work of poetry.
Although the question of what is the best definition of the word ‘beautiful’ remains a matter of debate, there is no doubt that the concept of beauty is as old as the hills. Art, if done correctly, can make the best use of beauty to communicate a different perspective of the world, a new way of seeing.