What is the true feeling of beauty?

By Kwo Da-Wei

Dear friends,

The subjectivity of beauty is an important idea. The German philosopher, Kent (1724-1804), was a firm champion of this idea. He believed that beauty has nothing to do with the material life or things; but only the feeling in one's heart. Isn't it true that everybody loves their own children, no matter whether they are good looking or pig-ugly. Who is not crazy about their lovers? We have a old Chinese saying: "Hsi-Shi (an ancient beauty) is in the eye of the beholder."

When we are enjoying a famous painting or some orchids in the garden, we have to concentrate on the subject and try to grasp the beauty with our heart's eyes. We have to distance ourselves from reason (truth) and desire (ethic), and rely on our personal sentiment and feeling to enjoy the inner beauty of the object. While scientists are interested in the structure and the classification of the flower and the merchants are interested mainly in the value of the flower; they seldom have the time to appreciate the beauty of the flower.

For this reason, while we are immersed in an aesthetic experience, we have to forget the practical side of life, i.e. the purpose and use of a thing, and concentrate on aesthetics. This view-point runs contrary to the ancient philosophy which believes that beautiful things must be useful and practical. However, the modern subjective view is progress, in my opinion.

According to Kent, while appreciating a beautiful thing, one should divorce oneself from the real world, and fix one's attention entirely on seeing the lines, colors and shapes of the thing, nothing else -- no personal feeling should be involved.

However, both subjective and objective view-points hold some truth, and have some flaws too. Neither is perfect. For instance, small used to be beautiful. Of course, this is no longer true. After World War II, larger paintings became popular - as seen in many of the New York School's products such as Pollock and de Kooning, etc. (see illustration). Paintings of young girls are not always beautiful, but the beautiful oil paintings of Rembrandt showing old men and women have won many people's hearts. At the same time, subjectivity is not always ideal either. For example, how could you create a piece of art in front of a heap of manure instead of a tranquil garden full of flowers and trees.

Luckily, a great German writer, Schiller (1759-1805), believed that a doctrine linking the two views would be best. In other words, a beautiful object should be enjoyed in a pleasant environment and when the observer is in good spirits. Many other philosophers agreed with him.

To sum up, the feeling of beauty comes from intuition, rather than from any practical reasoning and aspects of our daily life. How to enjoy the realm of beauty depends mainly upon one's temperament and disposition.

Goodbye for now.

-- Kwo Da-Wei