Philosophical Reflections on Beauty and Art
Philosophical Reflections on Beauty
Within reason is the aesthetic practice, a branch of philosophy whose main idea is beauty. Beauty is an aesthetic value and is a reflection on values. It consists of values that are shaping the aesthetic judgments about the element to be considered: the values move in a subjective and objective scope. There is an aesthetic experience (a good time offering customers satisfaction) when we take as a starting point that sometimes we experience an aesthetic view; this is supported by reasons. There are two kinds of beauty: natural (a landscape, something not created by humans) and artificial (that which is created by man).
Beauty and Symbolic Expression
Beauty has many faces and interpretations. Man tries to make a knowledge of the human being through the art images of man. Aesthetics can be considered an anthropological vision because it helps us know the human. Artistic creation, or the work of art, is the activity aimed at producing beautiful objects. The symbol is one of the faces that beauty offers. There is a historical journey in which art is not understood in the same way. There were times it was thought that art was a copy of nature. Aristotle’s conception says that art is any practical activity learned by experience. Plato considers art a copy of a model (nature), which in turn is a copy (it copies the ideas of matter). Hegel says that art is superior to nature, which is imbued with the spirit.
Symbolic Value of the Work of Art
The artwork is a creation that arises from the symbolic capacity and the intuition of the artist. The work produced symbolizes the new understanding of reality. It is a way of knowing and expressing oneself. In artistic creation, another vision of reality is offered, and this is because the real is penetrated with a different look. Using artistic expression seeks to capture the reality in an experiential way. The work of art does not reproduce itself; it is an interpretation of reality from the experience of beauty. The work of art is the result of stylization and is in itself significant. There are other functions that produce three performances:
- Art as a form: The value of the work of art lies in its formal excellence. It is defined as engrossing about irrelevant materials. They are not aspects of pure form.
- Art as an expression: The work of art is an expression of feelings and human values.
- Art as a symbol: The artwork performs a significant function; it is a symbol of human feelings.
Art and the Unveiling of the Truth
The work of art produces in us an experience of beauty and fullness that brings us closer to things. Philosophers have two levels to try to explain how the truth is revealed:
- A plane of what we call immediate perceptions regarding the work of art. Heidegger called this “Earth.”
- Another plane which captures a world of relations between the sensory elements; it is the configuration or form. Heidegger calls it “World.”
For installation art, it is the truth, and the truth is unveiling. The work of art consists in revealing this truth. A world is set up that stands in combat with the land. The artist starts from a physical matter, inert and closed. The form is a unified set of relationships that we perceive as the sensitive elements in these materials. To perceive is to grasp its unity.