It is in the Soul

Portrait of an Artist

Over the Weekend the Pope addressed artists gathered at the Vatican. The entire thing is beautiful meditiation on art and its importance in the world and I encourage you to read it. This bit, which contemplates the importance of art and beauty in the world and the tellos of art--a topic which is relevant for everyone not just artists, in particular stood out to me:

Indeed, an essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasized by Plato, is that it gives man a healthy "shock", it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum – it even makes him suffer, piercing him like a dart, but in so doing it "reawakens" him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft. Dostoevsky’s words that I am about to quote are bold and paradoxical, but they invite reflection. He says this: "Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there would no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret is here, the whole of history is here." The painter Georges Braque echoes this sentiment: "Art is meant to disturb, science reassures." Beauty pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path, fills us with new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life. The quest for beauty that I am describing here is clearly not about escaping into the irrational or into mere aestheticism.

Too often, though, the beauty that is thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy. It is a seductive but hypocritical beauty that rekindles desire, the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others, it is a beauty which soon turns into its opposite, taking on the guise of indecency, transgression or gratuitous provocation. Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond. If we acknowledge that beauty touches us intimately, that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence, the Mystery of which we are part; from this Mystery we can draw fullness, happiness, the passion to engage with it every day.

Gift-nature of art

I have an on going (at this point about 5 year long) discussion about what art is with a friend. My current working definition is that art, at least good art (I know that phrase brings up an entirely new discussion, but for my purposes here I mean art that had the ability to speak to and touch some people beyond their own time), must do three things; it must draw on or respond to art that came before it, it must address or speak to issues of its own time, and it must contain something from the artist, a spark of their own creativity.

This last component however, implies that art is something more, that it transcends mere technical skill. As Tolkien puts it in "A Leaf by Niggle" it is a gift. The nature of the gift however is complex. It is a gift from Niggle to others; in a utilitarian sense his neighbor Parish uses the canvas to patch his roof. However, his painting also touches some people, changes them and how they see the world, and so is a gift to them as well. Yet the picture is a gift to Niggle as well. While he could not fully capture it, what he was painting was a vision of somewhere that touched him, a perfect place that to which he had never been. This place does eventually becomes real and provided healing for Niggle and his neighbor. Discussing the painting Parish says, "But it did not look like this then, not real." "No, it was only a glimpse then," said the man; "but you might have caught the glimpse, if you had ever thought it worth while to try." As a glimpse of somewhere else, of something else that surpasses the human experience, the picture was a gift to Niggle, changing him and how he viewed the world.

In Tolkien's work this sense of gift is not confined to art--the world itself is a gift and the people in it bound by gift giving,/gift receiving relationships. One of the most explicit is Galadriel's parting gifts to the fellowship. Everything she gives to the fellowship was made by her and her household and is something particular to her, things the fellowship could not have found elsewhere. The cloaks were made by her and her weavers, the light caught from her mirror, strands of her own hair--all of these are gifts which contain a bit of herself. Moreover, they were all given freely, they do not put the recipient into debt nor does she ever expect repayment, and by their nature they serve to help and at times free their owner.

So art in some way is meant to serve others and not advantage the artist, for it was a gift to him as well. I am not totally sure where to go with this thought, or exactly how it fits into my overall definition of art. That is part of what makes art so powerful-can can touch and effect us so strongly, yet it is difficult to articulate where this power comes from. As alluded to before, it mirrors the order of the world, which in creation contains something of its Maker and was intended as a free gift to humanity.