An personal aesthetic experience is in the eye of the beholder.
that would cover all possible tastes, no?
mando
On May 15, 2008, at 9:17 AM, Chris Miller wrote:
As already noted, nothing can be explained about why this painting
should be
called a work of art.
(Or -- at least nothing can be explained by you.)
All you can do is indicate the strength of your feeling -- with
words like
"powerful" or "seized"
But the word beautiful can be the beginning of a long description of
compositional elements - like color, tone, line, balance, scale etc.--
and if prompted, I'm sure the painting teachers on this listserv
could explain
at length this painting's achievements.
(If it's too much of a stretch to call this image beautiful -- then
say that
it has "compositional beauty")
Regarding the genre of depressing, depraved, vile figurative images
made after
1900 -- the most famous would probably be the German Expressionists
-- but I
was thinking more about our own, homegrown variety that I call
"Chicago Ugly"
-- and here's some from the generations born 1880-1940 :
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424541316/111920/leon-golub-danse-
macabre.html
Leon Golub
http://www.printdealers.com/artist_template.cfm?id=1733
Carl Hoeckner
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/efts/smart/display.image.pl?
accession=198
5.4
Jim Nutt
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/370/1878/1600/a-fredb1.jpg
Fred Berger
And actually -concerning compositional beauty -- I'm not sure how
I'd compare
them with the Goya -- at least, until I've seen more than just
reproductions.
But every year, in our local art shows, I do see my fair share of
images
depicting "a world that has lost its soul, a terrible, terrible
world..." --
and I consider them worthless -- even worth less than the failed
attempts to
create imagined worlds that are sacred, joyful, and healthy.
********************************
Re: 'You're always thinking about Goya's black paintings, aren't
you Derek?'
Only becasue they - and other works done at this later stage - are
when Goya became Goya. If he had died at around 45 he would be
remembered today only as a relatively minor Baroque painter.
Re: '> Are they beautiful?
Only if you compare them to the enormous genre of depressing,
depraved,
vile
figurative images made after 1900 -- especially the ones made
after 1950.'
I can't imagine the kind of image I posted being described as
beautiful as compared with anything. Enormously powerful yes.
Beautiful, no. Who are the painters you have in mind by the way?
DA
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