A modest tribute to Art

One way or another, it is easy to see that human beings were born to be artists. So much so that, as a child, everyone has heard an adult say: “You’re making art, right?” Or “this boy paints the 7 with me!” (LOL)

In adulthood, we see professionals from any segment being called artists, when they stand out for their above-average competence and/or creativity in carrying out their duties.

In football, when players play beautifully, fluently, dribbling or pirouetting unusual movements, announcers and commentators often praise the feat by calling it “football-art”.

In the first years of school, children have enormous contact with Art, but it is so regrettable to see that, as the years go by, this contact becomes rarer until it becomes a secondary subject, almost irrelevant in the curriculum, when it should remain strong and increasingly present in people's lives, since, in addition to the sensitivity it provides, Art is one of the experiences that most humanize us!

Art was assigned certain roles such as provoking, criticizing, raising reflections and even some other more controversial ones, such as polemicizing, generating astonishment, doubt, questions and even shocking and attacking, when it is used as an instrument of protest; but I believe that its primary function is to have a commitment to beauty and, therefore, to send us to amazement (in the best sense of the word) and enchantment, experiences that bring so much lightness to the soul!

Of course, the concept of beauty is very subjective and individual, as this depends entirely on personal tastes, but for those who are minimally sensitive, it is not difficult to notice when a work is aesthetically harmonious, whatever the artistic field.

However, Art also has its B side, those “works” that are pure bizarre or that simply aim to be too “intellectualized”, leading the viewer to believe that their narrow-minded mind does not reach the “superiority” of the artist’s mind.
This type of art will never reach the hearts of more judicious people, with a keen critical sense because, in the end, because they are so free and empty, they only seem to want to mock people's intelligence, in that old and naughty “go for it” scheme.

Proof of this was that episode that took place at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, USA, when a 17-year-old young man (and with a very naughty spirit!), bothered by seeing a teddy bear wrapped in a blanket and displayed as art, left a pair of glasses on the floor just to see the audience's reaction. There was no other way: a few minutes later, many people stopped to “appreciate” the “work”! (ARGH!)

Another episode with the same principle – testing the degree of human cluelessness in the face of what a group determines as “art” – took place in a gallery within a university in Scotland, when some students placed a pineapple on top of an exhibition stand and days later, when they returned to the location, they found the pineapple officially exposed and protected inside a display case!
Tsk, tsk, tsk, what a shame!

This so-called “conceptual art”, also called avant-garde, which emerged at the end of the 19th century, has actually become a bane to society, as it tends to want to shove all kinds of delirium self-classified as Art down our throats.

But diverse treasures, produced with extreme beauty and good taste, that arouse pleasure in the 5 senses and are found in music, painting, sculpture, cinema, photography, fashion, cooking, design, etc., are true heritages of humanity, capable of even bringing us to tears!

In my humble opinion (and no one is obliged to agree with it), true Art is that which, even if we don't like the theme, the elements used or the artist's style, we are able to recognize the talent, the inventiveness, the many proposals innovative way of doing something and a refined technique used in that work.

Therefore, Art fulfills its main role – of rapture, of the state of grace – when it takes us to a level where we only have one option: surrender to contemplation. 

To corroborate all this, I highly recommend the video “Because Beauty Matters” (below), a 2009 documentary created and presented by Roger Scruton (1944 – 2020), considered one of the greatest English philosophers, author of more than 50 books, opera composer, cultural critic, professor at the University of London for many years and Buckingham University and Knight of the Order of the British Empire.

This material is an invitation to reflection and an excellent opportunity to awaken in us the ability to evaluate, for ourselves, what should or should not be considered and consumed as Art.