The dictatorship of beauty

It is well known that in art the idea of ​​beauty prevails. It is normal, because visual pleasure is basically governed by beauty. However, there is an idea that I consider quite problematic and that is when young artists confuse the beautiful with the pretty. And that could cause Salvadoran Art to find itself in a particular dead end. The desire to sell at close range and appear as a promise of art makes young people change aesthetics for the art of beauty. Well, the eyes less educated in art will prefer to observe beautiful elements on the canvas rather than disruptive elements.

In the first place, I consider it necessary to show young people the border that separates the aesthetic and the beautiful. On the one hand, aesthetics is more related to an accurate message and ethics; while beauty is related to first-time visual pleasure and design. In general terms, aesthetics achieves visual pleasure through the conjunction of six basic elements: the correct use of perspective, composition, the proportion of objects, the good handling of color, line and shape.

The careful use of these elements inevitably provokes visual pleasure (always coupled with the idea of ​​the uniqueness of the work and the creativity of the artist). But, I wonder, what happens when there is no knowledge of these elements? Well, art falls directly into a disastrous idea where beauty prevails over aesthetics. Many first-time artists choose to be self-taught and the result is that their works become decoration of short consumption. The work that results from the lack of knowledge lacks aesthetic appreciation. A beautiful work is quickly consumed and does not allow contemplation.

Next, I believe that the problem of the Dictatorship of Beauty is closely linked to the irruption of design in the arts. Ignorance of Aesthetics, as a subject, causes artists to approach Graphic Design, whose purpose is immediate consumption and the implementation of an idea. Art, on the other hand, seeks reflection and contemplation. In my opinion, art conceived from design is only useful for decorating interior spaces and radically forgets the aesthetic idea and the ethics of contemplation.

Generally, these works created from self-taught practice and from design do not carry any message, nor do they provide an idea beyond what we are seeing. Young people have to understand that falling into design turns art into decoration. And this is even more accentuated knowing that this distances us from a national aesthetic language, since the artist-designers concentrate more on imitating solutions from European Art History (still lifes, landscapes, portraits, etc.) than on creating their own aesthetic. and a national pictorial voice.

The problem is serious, naturally. But it is necessary to carefully observe the reasons for this question. The lack of an Academy specialized in Fine Arts is one. Because, how are young people going to know these elements if nobody tells them or they do it in a cursory way?

Along with this problem we enter a bigger one: complacency. It is normal for many young artists and designers to receive praise from their peers and from the centers where they exhibit. There is no obvious requirement and in the end, I ask myself the following: How are they going to prosper if they do exactly the same as others? Young artists try to sell, but it is impossible if nobody stands out.