Is Beauty Important in Art?

There is a discussion going on in an online art group, as to whether beauty should be important in art. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p6tsd

My opinion is: yes. Very much so!

Of course one can be divided over what is beautiful and what is not, just as much as over what is art and what isn´t, but in my opinion, beauty in art has a purpose, now more than ever: To show that life is worth while, that there is a value higher than wealth, and a happiness which is not based on material possessions.

Beauty satisfies our human need for harmony and spirituality. Creativity and mastery of the craft are the other two important components art needs to have, in order to qualify as such, but if beauty is missing and replaced by brutal, obscene or outrageous content, the work of art, if it can be called that, will not be a positive force but a negative one.

If you ask me, artists should not endorse the ugliness and alienation that modern life presents us, by creating work that mirrors these negative aspects. Why emphasize what´s depressive and disturbing? The media do that pretty well, why should artists copy them?

After almost a century of ugliness being favored over beauty in the arts, don´t you think it is time to go back to that place where the real and the ideal can exist in harmony, where an artist, through his or her ability, can bring beauty to a place that lacks it?

Thanksgiving

And again, it´s time to think about turkeys and pumpkins!

A year ago, during a non-painting-trip to Austria, I saw a field full of pumpkins, ready to be harvested. It looked very pretty and I took some photographs. A week later, quite a few pumpkins remained in the field when early snow surprised the place. Now the view was even more stunning. The sun had melted the snow away on the south side to reveal bright orange dots, randomly strewn over the field.

With winter approaching, it felt like the right time to paint the scene now!

Rosa

This is another painting I made of Rosa. It was done in a single session and I believe I painted over an old canvas. I am always happy with the rough brush work that results from doing that and, because there is already color on the canvas, the painting goes so much faster.
The windows of our studio looked like those of a factory, hence the title.

Ethnic Series 2

Another painting in the ethnic series.
Women carry more than their fair share of the burden in Mexico and many other developing countries of the world. I don´t want to jump on the feminist band wagon here, but it is worth mentioning. Mexico´s culture is still a male dominated one, especially noticeable in rural areas.
Women who have many children, few modern inventions to make life easier, and little in the way of income, necessarily have a hard life in a place where it is seen as weakness for a man to help at home.
This young woman is preparing tortillas. She has the corn dough or "masa" sitting in front of her on the "metate", a volcanic stone. Next to her is the hot "comal", on which she bakes the tortillas, turning them twice in the process while the man in her life stands in the background, hands in his pockets.

Blue

A few days ago I finished this harbor scene.
While I was painting it, I remember thinking what a pleasure it was, being able to mix these precious blues, not having to worry where the pigment came from nor how much of it I could use.
A few centuries ago artists were dependent upon shipments of Lapizlázuli from Afghanistan, or Cobalt from Iran. If they could afford them. Lapizlázuli was rather expensive especially if you wanted the really deep tone. Cobalt, which is found in the presence of arsenic, had the disadvantage of being poisonous. The third option for old masters was a blue found in copper mines: azurite. It was less expensive, but also less permanent and less beautiful.
By the way, today´s most basic tube color "Ultramarine Blue" got its name from the fact that the pigment had to be brought from "beyond the sea" (ultra mare), not from the comparison with the deep blue color of the ocean.