Aesthetic Appreciation and Discussion of Art

The more you think about it, the more confusing art becomes. Under the branch of esthetics, philosophers have studied and argued about the beauty of art. Therefore, aesthetic appreciation is the acknowledgement of this beauty within art.

Measuring Art

Since each individual’s tastes vary based on their preferences, there isn’t an accepted universal metric of how “good” a piece of art is. However, there are philosophers that disagree to a certain extent.

David Hume, differentiated the line between “do you like it” and “is it good”. As humans, certain visual conditions are naturally more pleasing to look at. Educators often teach aspects such as balance and color theory from every art class in the sixth grade up. These elements are core to visual mediums. Despite this, we often see outliers, and for people to create them, there must be people that like these outliers. 

Take, for example, this corporate art style that big tech companies like google use. Features are exaggerated and colors are shifted unnaturally. The same occurs in cartoons and mainstream animation studios such as Pixar. I’ve seen users on social media criticize bubbly appearing Pixar humans for a lack of proper anatomy. However is that a subjective opinion that the style doesn’t fit, or an objective opinion that the anatomy is bad? Objectively, a level of balance is created if every single individual in the movie is exaggerated. 

Why do I like art?

That brings me to my appreciation of this field. I love the potential art has, to be something simple or grandly emotional. As I said, I’m not too knowledgeable in the field of art, but I still think anyone can talk about it because of how it’s integrated into our daily lives. 

Plato didn’t like art because he thought it tampered with logical reasoning, appealing to your emotional soul. In the opposite vein, Aristotle advocated for art. He thought that emotions must be balanced, and that art could act as a medium to balance them. There are plenty of other philosophers that hold a different opinion with the nuances and intricacies of art. I think these all show how influential art is to humans in general. 

Up until 2 years ago, I never listened to music. For every long car ride or study session, I would simply sit in silence. I don’t pay attention to lyrics. Therefore, I only listen to most songs because I simply enjoy them. On the other spectrum, some are songs I attribute to emotional moments. In media, art has serious potential to accentuate a movie or show to a higher level. It’s the same for the visuals and every other aspect of the scene you’re viewing. Many of my “emotional” songs are connected to scenes within movies. I like how art has that power, but I also like how art doesn’t have to. I enjoy these songs with emotional connections just as much as I enjoy songs without them. 

That’s what I currently see art as. Something that has the potential to be an emotional expression of ideas, but can also be something without a special meaning. 

Featured Image

Viewing Art (First Image)

Corporate Art Style (Second Image)

Listening to music (Third Image)