Blog 13: Art as a Luxury

“To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience.” -Armstrong

I don’t quite agree with Armstrong on this point. While I do agree Armstrong’s statement is what usually occurs, I also feel like it is possible to view beauty as a luxury and still gain its full potential. For an example a $1 million painting is most definitely a luxury, but someone could also gain a lot from the paintings beauty. It may move them in an incredible way. I think its unfair to say that viewing beauty as a luxury always decreases the potential of the experience.

To put it simply I find beauty in just about everything. I find it beautiful how small atoms makes up everyday objects. I find the anatomy and physiology of the human body extremely beautiful, how everything work in unison. But I also see beauty on the large scale such as sunsets or a nature scenes. I think that my ability to find beauty has aided me in having a positive outlook on life

I feel like society also has a broad view on beauty. I think that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. People have drastically different ideas on what beauty is. Armstrong would explain this by saying that people have differing “sense” and “form” drives. Armstrong explains the belief that these drives determine what we find beautiful “For Schiller, true beauty is whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time”. Armstrong isn’t disagreeing with beauty being in the eye of the beholder, but rather attempting to explain what beauty truly is on a deeper level. Now whether I agree with Armstrong and Schiller’s belief of two psychological drives will take a lot more thought. On one hand it seems completely plausible and reasonable, but on the other hand it seems too simple for todays neuroscience. Overall, deciding on how I feel about this belief is going to take a few more read throughs and more thought on the subject.

2 thoughts on “Blog 13: Art as a Luxury

  1. Anthony, I admire your reluctance to immediately jump in with both feet. Great work. I agree with you that it is completely possible to have a profound experience with a luxurious object of beauty. 3/3

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