Single Idea 20433

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty]

Full Idea

There is an apparent contradiction between two distinct uses of the word 'beauty', one for that which has sensuous charm, and one for the aesthetic approval of works of imaginative art where the objects presented to us are often of extreme ugliness.

Gist of Idea

'Beauty' can either mean sensuous charm, or the aesthetic approval of art (which may be ugly)

Source

Roger Fry (An Essay in Aesthetics [1909], p.33)

Book Reference

Fry,Roger: 'Vision and Design' [Penguin 1937], p.33


A Reaction

The gouging of eyes in 'King Lear' was always the big problem case for aesthetics, just as nowadays it is Marcel Duchamp's wretched 'Fountain'.