Aesthetic Analysis

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that asks questions about the nature of art and beauty. The Classical definition of art is the good, the true, the beautiful. Art equals something that is beautiful then it is true and leads the person experiencing it, to the good. While this may be the classical definition of art it is not quite accurate. To think that something is true and good just because it is beautiful is not right. There are three critiques of this definition which define art in a different light. Leo Tolstoy defines one as romantic art; “The essence of a work of art is the emotion it causes to an audience.” It makes everyone feel as one because they are all feeling the same emotion. Malcolm Bradbury defines modern art as a construction of reality, imitation of real world based on the nature of fiction. He states that art has something to teach. Frank Stella brings to the table the definition of post-modern art; “The aim of art is to create space.” Stella states that attractive and teachings of art are compromised since they are propagandistic and art should be neither. It should be an art space which is distinct from the real world, a refuge, a sanctuary, it creates space where objects can exist and the subjects of paintings can live. When you look at all of these different definitions of art it seems to be hard to choose only one to define art, because you can find truth in all the definitions. Art simply stated is a piece, a picture or a scene that can move you to emotion, can teach you what it is saying and what it is all about and it is something that is real.

The first genres of art we will be discussing is film. Susan Sontag basically writes in the “Century of Cinema” that the strongest experience of cinema was to surrender and be kidnapped by the movie. To be kidnapped you must be overwhelmed by the physical presence of the image. To be kidnapped you have to be in a theatre in the dark, among anonymous strangers not at home watching it on the television. The first film to be discussed is a 1961 Swedish film by Ingmar Bergman, Through a glass Darkly. Also in 1961 this film won the Academy Award for best foreign film. This film explores the subtle terror of schizophrenia both from the patient, and their family. A young women named Karin has just been release from the hospital from this condition and her family is in high hopes she is rehabilitated. Karin’s illness however comes back and leads her to have visions which she believes will result in her seeing God, she’s terrified when “God” turns out to be a giant spider. This film gets you so involved emotionally from being happy to sad, laughing to concerned so much so that you forget you’re even reading subtitles. You get encapsulated into finding out what happens to Karin and how far the disease will take her. This film is an incredible piece of art with all the emotions it brings to the audience. The next film to review is a 1964 black comedy called Dr. Strangelove by Peter George and Stanley Kubrick. An insane General starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and Generals frantically try to stop. Dr. Strangelove with the larger than life airplanes and secret war room and (at the time) real life explosions and flying scenes, did nothing better than to kidnap you into the movie itself. You find yourself intensely trying to help figure out the recall code to stop the planes and yet laughing at the same time. This work of art has something to teach us, an event like this may not be so far fetched. In 1989 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “Culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Both these works of art bring you different emotions, different lessons and different scenes to look at.

The next genre we will look into is music. Aaron Copland wrote in “How We Listen”that “My own belief is that all music has an expressive power, some more and some less, but that all music has a certain meaning behind the notes and that that meaning behind the note constitutes, after all, what the piece is saying, what the piece is about.” When you really listen to music and let it take you away it is almost like you can feel the emotions the artist felt when writing it or composing it. You have to listen to the meaning behind the note. As with John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” he wrote this song with four parts to it describing a religious experience he went through fighting drug addiction. The first part “Acknowledgement” the start of the saxophone is like a deep breath, the beats of the piano and drums start creating a feeling of almost tranquility in knowing love exists and there is hope. The next part “Resolution” starts out quiet and faint, then a loud saxophone blares and the drums and piano all come in at the same time almost chaotically. This showing the struggle in his head most likely when he was going through withdraws and was having a rough time staying committed. The third part “pursuance” the drums start and increase more rapidly, and more rapidly simulating a person running, chasing the love supreme he is looking for. The final part “Psalm” has the slower, calmer sounds of the saxophone and piano creating a sense of calm and happiness like he has accomplished his goal in overcoming his addictions and he is praising! Just these simple note to this song if one didn’t pay attention could miss the story Coltrane is telling and the emotions he went through. The last piece of music is a song written by Abe Meeropol a jewish teacher and union activist, he wrote a song called “Strange Fruit” originally a poem called “Bitter Fruit” in 1937 after seeing a photograph of a lynching in a civil right’s magazine and it outraged him. After putting music to the poem it began being performed at many left-wing

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