“For art cannot live in the world of kitsch, which is a world of commodities to be consumed, rather than icons to be revered. True art is an appeal to our higher nature, an attempt to affirm that other kingdom in which moral and spiritual order prevails. Others exist in this realm not as compliant dolls but as spiritual beings, whose claims on us are endless and unavoidable. For us who live in the aftermath of the kitsch epidemic, therefore, art has acquired a new importance. It is the real presence of our spiritual ideals.”
From “Beauty: A Very Short Introduction” by Roger Scruton
Professor Scruton’s book is a very interesting meditation on the nature of beauty. The above quote summarizes his position, one that I fully endorse. Many of my blogs point to the desert that is contemporary art, but this desert is a symptom of a greater malady, which is nihilism. If great Art affirms the “other kingdom in which moral and spiritual order prevails…” then there must really be that “other kingdom” or Art is simply a mirage arising from a dream.
When I speak of my efforts to capture the real thing, the Platonic form of the subject, I’m mumbling in my own inarticulate way to express what Professor Scruton has said with much more clarity. We are more than our bodies. I don’t know what that means exactly other than we long to go home, and to the extent we can experience a little of home here in this life, we ought to do so. Art in all its forms does this if it succeeds. I can only hope that every once in a while my little efforts bear some fruit that savors of home.
Blog No. 70: Other Kingdoms
“For art cannot live in the world of kitsch, which is a world of commodities to be consumed, rather than icons to be revered. True art is an appeal to our higher nature, an attempt to affirm that other kingdom in which moral and spiritual order prevails. Others exist in this realm not as compliant dolls but as spiritual beings, whose claims on us are endless and unavoidable. For us who live in the aftermath of the kitsch epidemic, therefore, art has acquired a new importance. It is the real presence of our spiritual ideals.”
From “Beauty: A Very Short Introduction” by Roger Scruton
Professor Scruton’s book is a very interesting meditation on the nature of beauty. The above quote summarizes his position, one that I fully endorse. Many of my blogs point to the desert that is contemporary art, but this desert is a symptom of a greater malady, which is nihilism. If great Art affirms the “other kingdom in which moral and spiritual order prevails…” then there must really be that “other kingdom” or Art is simply a mirage arising from a dream.
When I speak of my efforts to capture the real thing, the Platonic form of the subject, I’m mumbling in my own inarticulate way to express what Professor Scruton has said with much more clarity. We are more than our bodies. I don’t know what that means exactly other than we long to go home, and to the extent we can experience a little of home here in this life, we ought to do so. Art in all its forms does this if it succeeds. I can only hope that every once in a while my little efforts bear some fruit that savors of home.