The Ugly in Art
Bjaurumas mene

Summary/Abstract: Traditionally aesthetics perceived art as intrinsically connected with beauty. It was argued that the task of art is to re-produce and imitate beauty. The history of arts and especially the development of the contemporary art contradicts such a view - modern art theories seem resigned to the presence in art of what is culturally, historically and socially perceived as ugly. On the other hand, discarding beauty as the only criteria for artistic excellence leads to subjectivism and relativism. The article, dravving on the theories of the three apologets (Kari Rosenkranz, Bernard Bosanquet, and Theodore Adorno) of the ugly in art attempts to otuline the middle way between the two extremes. Rosenkranz's interpretation of the ugly as the foil for the beautiful, Bosanquet's concept of difficult beauty, and Adorno's understanding of ugliness as the cultic presence in art each in their own way offer a metaphysical, psychological and historical justification of the presence of the ūgly in art. These theories are interpreted as a constructive reason to save the objective criteria for art without at the same time reducing art to a mere depiction of beauty.

• Details
• Contents