Exploring The History And Function Of Modern Art And Beauty In Visual Arts Essay.

The Evolution of Art and the Emergence of Modern Art

With certain works of art going back to 330 BC, it seems somewhat fair that we begin our exploration with a history lesson prior to moving on to modern art. Art is derived from Latin Ars, meaning skill or craftsmanship. We also have a Craftsman on staff, who is a talented craftsperson. And besides, the forefathers of their day may have thought they had what we now term modern art. Whoever initially labelled anything beautiful as works of art evolved over time, & are we to presume they have seen something but were also affected by strong sentiments of its beauty, thus constituting it subjective, or did they simply look at the lines and colour and considered it so?   When does modern art enter the picture? In modern art, what function does beauty perform? According to common belief, it began in 1863, after Edouard Manet displayed a frightening artwork named Le Dejeuner Sur I'herbe at a Paris salon. Art that was developed between the 1860s (a few suggest it was the 1880s) and also ended in late 1960 is known as modern art.  Art created after that is called contemporary — for example, conceptual, minimalistic, postmodernism, and feminist

Further than the chronological periods, the two stages have thematic and aesthetic variations. Since it did not maintain on what preceded before or relied on the principles of art colleges, it became labelled "modern." Several art historians, especially art critic Clement Greenberg, considered Édouard Manet being the first modern artist, and not just because he painted images of modern-day life, and because he defied convention for not using perspective trickery to replicate the existing reality. Conversely, he focused on the importance that his artwork was merely painted on a piece of flat canvas, created with a painting brush, a brush that occasionally left marks the canvases surface. Even though this astounded viewers and critics, it encouraged his colleagues and subsequent generations of painters, who explored about how to bring increasing emphasis to chosen mediums, whether it be in abstraction or representational pieces. What a person considers to be attractive can vary from what somebody else considers to be beautiful, making it much more difficult to debate beauty. Aesthetics does not play a major part in visual art. It really is not entirely missing from modern art, but this does not determine or play a large part in it. The current arts have become more about conveying meaning and provoking thinking. Beauty might not be crucial in communicating the idea, dependent on the artist's goal.

The concept "beauty" is frequently related to sensory appreciation, which refers to an intrinsic feature that triggers a response from the beholder, such as happiness, tranquillity, or joy. Both natural occurrences (such as sundown or mountain ranges) and man-made artifacts are regarded as beautiful (like paintings or musical notes). The methodology is objective whether it claims beauty as a fundamental aspect inside natural phenomena or item, or when it considers it only in accordance with the human recipient's sense of beauty (Armstrong). The methodology is objective whether it claims beauty as a fundamental aspect inside natural phenomena or item, or when it considers it only in accordance with the human recipient's sense of beauty. This method is subjective because it claims that it happens inside the mind of an individual that experiences beauty, as said beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. One's self-perception of beauty changes throughout time, and one should constantly be able to integrate themselves or their emerging self into society. When the skin begins to sag on the arms and other places, one ought to think, "Wow, that would be really pretty, indeed." It's just not gorgeous in the way one would have thought it was initially (Dahlgren). This, Objectivity vs subjectivity has always been a source of major theological argument within aesthetic appeal, not just in regards to the essence of beauty, but even in regards to appraising the respective qualities of artistic works.

The Role of Beauty in Modern Art

Objectivist Perspectives in the view of Plato (427-347 BCE) thinks that beauty is found in his world of the Shapes. is impersonal; it has nothing to do with the spectator's individual perspective. Plato's idea of "objectivity" is unusual. The realm of Shapes is "ideal" instead of tangible; Plato considers Forms and Beauty to be non-physical concepts. Beauty, on the other hand, is objective in the sense that it is not a part of the observer's experience. On another hand, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), for example, felt that aesthetic evaluation is founded upon sensations, particularly pleasure. It is a matter of subjective preference as to what offers pleasure. Because such judgments do not require cognitive ability or rationale, they are subjective (kant). Aesthetics is a characteristic of the item that is thought to be beautiful, never a trait of the entity that is assessed to be stunning what one person considers to be wonderful may not be the same as what the other considers to be beautiful. Creativity is becoming more about conveying meaning and provoking thinking. It is the totality of the work that makes it lovely. Art that gives you a good feeling. Changing perceptions of what is lovely. Kant claims that it would be our judgment capacity that allows us to have perceptions of beauty and to understand those feelings as part of a deliberate, controlled natural world (Ru?inova).

When we declare that the “Mona Lisa is Beautiful and also an outstanding piece of western Arts” what do we mean by that? The remark comprises both a taste judgment (the Mona Lisa is stunning) but also an artistic assessment (the Mona Lisa is stunning, As a masterpiece of the Western Arts). According to what precedes, these two different rulings are distinct. Both moral judgements are normative, however the normative framework of the judgment of taste pertains to components that are distinct from the notions of the artistic judgment; contemporary art forms necessitate the synthesis of a judgment that is artistic rather than a judgement of taste (Zaimaan). according to Immanuel Kant's Rebuttal of Judgment, humans are making an argument in accordance with the opinion that people, who are looking at the Mona Lisa right now at the Louvre, like Mona Lisa and think it is unquestionably beautiful, whatever it means, by articulating the judgement of taste (Mona Lisa is beautiful), we are making an argument in accordance with the opinion that humans, who could be looking at the Mona Lisa currently. would like Mona Lisa and honestly believe (subjectivity of the aesthetic judgment). Simultaneously time, we assume anybody that has seen before will view the Mona Lisa would only think it lovely, and so will only voice the same judgement, as per Kant.   As a result, it appears that there is still a conflict seen between the concept that taste evaluations, - judgments that typically pertain to concerns of taste, are inherently subjective — in other words, depend on the people who develop those) as well as the view that those who seek to attain broad, perhaps global, acceptance. To put it another way, they appear to also be subjective (personal) and objective (collective or normative) As a consequence, the judgement of taste purports to be normative, that is, it professes to be a concept that governs to anyone and everyone, not just those who makes it (Andina).

Perspectives on Aesthetics: Kant and Plato

However, if artistry is entirely personal, and if anything, anyone chooses to believe to be - and feels something beautiful is beautiful, then it would appear that perhaps the term has no significance, and that when we deem something beautiful, people are conveying nothing other than a positive personal demeanour. Furthermore, while various people may fluctuate in their individual assessments, it is clear that our overall judgements are quite similar: it'd be strange or absurd for anybody to dispute that a flawless rose or perhaps a stunning sunset both are exquisite. Although it is conceivable to differ and dispute about something that is magnificent, and to attempt to influence anyone that something might be absolutely beautiful or maybe to learn why it is beautiful from someone else. In the symposium and Enneads by plato both link beauty to a reaction that is od deep desire and love, although they place beauty itself within the domain of the Forms, as well as the attractiveness of specific things in their engagement in the Formation (Wolfgang). Nevertheless, Plotinus' view makes beauty a matter of 'formedness,' or possessing the precise structure typical of the type of thing the item would be at given point. In this opinion, beauty would be at least as impartial like any other conception, or maybe has a higher fundamental significance than individual Forms: that is the kind of form int the domain of forms (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

From a historic perspective, we recognize that the normative framework of taste judgments is not just about the artwork, and we've also come towards a more accepted definition of the idea of art. Humans acknowledge that the visual art forms, through the different forms, correspond to the sphere of perceptive consciousness, but that the evidence of meaning, rather than its intrinsic attributes, is crucial to artistic work. Artwork assessments should not be focused on cognitive qualities, because art somehow doesn't seek objective facts, rather than serves as a catalyst for activating and rejuvenating ways of viewing existence. Artwork does not have to be beautiful or ugly to be meaningful (Gemtou). The interaction in between works and indeed the observer is multifaceted and always changing, providing infinite permutations for aesthetic pleasure and mental expansion. This leads to the conclusion that beauty in modern art is subjective, based on how it makes people feel instead of how people observe it

References

Andina, Tiziana. “Normativity and Beauty in Contemporary Arts.” Rivista Di Estetica, no. 64, 2017, pp. 151–166.,

https://doi.org/10.4000/estetica.2076.

Armstrong, Hamilton Reed. “Is ‘Beauty’ an Objective Reality or Only in the Eye of the Beholder?” Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, 1 , 2009.

Beauty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 20 March 2022, from

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty/.

Dahlgren, Elissa. “12. What Role Does Beauty Play in Contemporary Art?” Elissa Dahlgren, 24 Oct. 2014, https://elissadahlgren.wordpress.com/12-what-role-does-beauty-play-in-contemporary-art/.

Huemer, Wolfgang. Beaty: New Essays in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. Philosophia, 2019.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of judgment. Hackett Publishing, 1987. 

https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=k8tgDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=YX1k8vs616&sig=-Zd48zWSiZiCgbeCCBs_JGlbSgw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ru?inova, M. "Reflections on Beauty: Immanuel Kant and Semir Zeki." 5th International Conference on Research in Humanities, Sociology and Education. 2016. https://icehm.org/upload/3148ED1116072.pdf

Zaaiman, Jakob. “Contemporary Art: Is It Okay to 'Hate' It? What Does That Even Mean?” Medium, Medium, 23 Nov. 2021, https://jakob-zaaiman.medium.com/is-it-okay-to-hate-contemporary-art-what-does-that-even-mean-2f9ec577221b.

Gemtou, Eleni. "Subjectivity in art history and art criticism." Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 2.1 (2010): 2-13. 

https://www.lkouniv.ac.in/site/writereaddata/siteContent/202004061919580450balram_sharma_FA_Subjectivity_in_Art.pdf