Beauty - May 7

One of the qualities of art that people may find confounding, even off-putting (and sometimes infuriating), is its seeming subjectivity. You find different artworks ”good,” and others will naturally ask why. The ensuing conversations provide a wonderful opportunity to share yourself in the most uniquely personal of ways: I find this beautiful. The more you talk about art, the more you discover for yourself what is beautiful to you, knowing that there is always someone who will heartily disagree. 

Beauty as an endeavor, therefore, asks us to be a little bit brave. If fearlessness is asked of those venturing tentatively into art appreciation, it is imperative for art’s creators. Challenging art rarely finds immediate audiences, and masterpieces hanging in museums today were in their time reviled as unskilled, uninspired, even ugly. Contemporary art practice has since moved away from achieving an ideal of beauty above all, yet some of the most thoughtful—or “heartful”—art nowadays asks bold questions and dares you to find your own answers. 

This week as we consider beauty, we can easily think on the delicate wonders of Nature (God’s canvas), or some favorite tunes in our playlist, or the beloved framed photos on our wall. But where else can we find beauty, if what challenges us can also be beautiful? Do we dare to see beauty where we didn’t see it before?