One of the most common discussions in the art world is whether aesthetic experience is objective or subjective, that is, whether it is governed by absolute standards or whether it constitutes a land of total human autonomy, in which what is wanted is done.
On this point, Rookmaaker wrote: “Life and art are too complex to apply legalistic rules; But doesn’t that mean there are no standards?(ROOKMAAKER, Art Needs No Justification, p. 61). According to this statement, a Christian The vision of art must underpin that our aesthetic experience has, at the same time, elements of objectivity and subjectivity. I said that art is less objective than our desire for security and less subjective than we would like our desire for freedom. The artist is free, but he is not Dieu. Il exercises his creativity in the god-created world, based on God’s resources, and must do so within the limits established by Him, or produce ugly rather than beautiful things.
- “What are the rules of art? It’s a complicated question.
- But a starting point can be found in the following four topics:.
Art must be developed in relation to the world created by God, although it has intrinsic value, art does not exist outside the created world, in fact, it exists to enrich life in the world and requires its meaning to be live in relation. The implication of this is that one of the norms of art is what we often call decorum: the adequacy between it and the environment or event in which it is broadcast and which it aims to enrich.
2. Art must be developed under the lordship of God. The basic assumption of this second theme is that, although it is creation, art is not ex-nihilo creatio [creation from scratch], as God’s creative act. He has God as a starting point and reference, the first implication of this is that, in addition to being creative, he is always allusive or representative, every art is a form of expression and, as such, conveys a message. Being in all human communication, this message must be subject to God’s revelation. Beauty exists in a necessary relationship with truth and justice and, apart from that relationship, it simply cannot exist.
3. Art must express the complexity of the world created by God. Another implication of having God as a reference point is that art must express the complexity of created reality; this has implications for the two fundamental aspects of art: form and content. As for the latter, art should not be monothematic, but must express the variety of themes printed by God in the reality he created. Compared to the first [form], it must be rich and use the diversity of materials, supports and other potentials available to the artist, according to the gift of the Creator.
4. Art must be understandable. Art is the result of the application of God’s talents. Talents are also gifts God gives us to serve Him, serving others. Art therefore has a relational meaning; it exists to enrich the lives of others, that is, it should not occur in an egocentric way, we must understand that, in a sense, art is the product of the concerns and reflections of an artist and, in that sense, it is an act of individual submission from the artist to God. But, in principle, it should not be engrossed in itself. The artist must consider the other and his symbolic universe, avoiding any elitist and snob attitudes that represent a departure from the intersubjective purpose of art.
At the same time as considering the normative aspect of art, the Christian vision does not eliminate the space of subjectivity, expressed in different styles and personal preferences, as an exercise in our creativity, art is the universe of our relative freedom. Therefore, it is natural and desirable that there be a difference in style between different artists and between different cultures in time and space, as well as it is natural and desirable for different observers to express their personal preference for certain events, styles or artists. .
However, for some contextual reason, it is worth remembering that styles are not neutral wrappers. Good art establishes a coherent relationship between form and content, and the immediate implication is that the form of a work of art is never neutral. a culture, an environment, a set of possibilities and, ultimately, a vision of an artist’s reality.
painters paint what they see. However, once they see what they know, we can also say that they paint what they know. In painting, or in visual communication, we can see what an artist, as a member of the human race, placed at a certain point in his life. history, knows and understands reality. However, the human view of reality is not just knowledge, in the sense of knowing what is there; it is also creation, in the sense that people want to “realize” the vision of the same reality (ROOKMAAKER. The Christian and Art. p. 335-336).
It is also worth remembering that in light of a Christian perspective, our personal preference does not validate our aesthetic experience, our preference for the ugly does not make it beautiful, just as our preference for evil does not make evil good and our preference because lying does not make lying true.