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Monday, October 8, 2012
"Why Beauty Matters"
An anonymous commenter offered a link to this BBC show, "Why Beauty Matters," as a follow-up to my post about Camille Paglia. The link does not seem to be working in the comments section, so, here's the show, in its entirety:
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As an aficionado of British crap towns and concrete brutalism in general I shall make time to watch this. Here is a short palate cleanser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tZPH5my-0&feature=fvwrel
By the way, the director of this ad made the wonderful romantic film Birth.
Those who fail to recognize beauty are condemned to live a life of ugliness and never enjoying that which they try to live.
I started watching this video today during my lunch break, cut it off after a few minutes to invite my colleagues who also did not go out for lunch to watch it with me. We were seven people sitting there quietly for an hour and letting it sink in. Thanks, Stuart.
Well I struggled thru 2/3 of Scruton's program. My own experience intersects with a number of Scruton's subjects. I worked at the Tate Gallery when Carl Andres bricks were a cause celebre; I studied Classics including some of Plato; I love Rembrandt; I'm a Londoner familiar with the ethos of Britart; I lived in a council high rise; I like my concrete as brutalist as possible; I respect Marcel Duchamp, but despise Damien Hirst.
Scruton's thesis is merely trite. It's obvious that Vermeer beats Banksy. So what? The world is plenty big enough for charlatans and artists who are often the same people anyway. The scandal isn't about charlatanry, it's about money. Don't tax me to build public housing, whether beautiful or ugly. Don't tax me buy a Rembrandt or a urinal. Oh, you cry, but money is nothing beside beauty. Wrong. My money in my pocket is beautiful; my money in your pocket is ugly.
Anyway the documentary was trite, mannered and manipulative. Dull thoughts were given a patina of meaning by beautiful music and twitchy editing.
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