Beauty - a Western History of Art
Creative writing on a concept
Tight muscles ripple like waves on the sea. Poised in an infinite, tense, strength. A male form so beautiful he can only be a product of the Gods. Rolling muscles timelessly set in cool, clean marble, creating a canon of Western beauty that has rippled through the centuries.
Pale, illuminated skin shines like the moon on a dark night. Eyes are aloof and stare towards an unknown dream. Her high forehead is punctuated with the thinnest of eyebrows. The real lady’s pale skin has long turned to dust but this idealised beauty will live on eternally.
The physical begins to give way to the imaginative. Landscape rivals the human form. Emotion is the victor as the bare breasted woman waves her flag high in the air and looks down on the fighting masses. This robust goddess stands upon a pedestal of change.
Harsh realism contrasts with just the impression of a scene. Coloured dots systematically explore and the decorative accentuates every part expect her full, red lips. Emotions become expressions; bright colours are unblended. Fantasy and distortion take on new geometric form.
The gestural represents the nothingness of all the beauty that has gone before. Until it is everywhere. Classical figures re-emerge in photos, in comics, larger than life, offering the power that comes with looking this way, and an overpowering sense of longing that will never go away.
A concept infused in our inner life. Every choice, every meaningful relationship, every surrounding, landscape, setting sun, is tinged with the ideal from another time.
Purple bruises ripe like grapes on the vine. Reality is represented in itself. Unguarded intimacy, nothing is hidden. A woman’s pain and power on photographic paper. Human ability in all its forms, all the different bodies. Hierarchies slowly dissolving.
A strong black woman, with a saliant red cape that sparkles like the giant star Arcturus. A long gold spear in her hand, she stands upon the back of a huge spiked monster with large, full lips and a multitude of teeth. A violent history is reimagined. The world is reclaimed.
Time moves gradually. The world becomes ever so slightly more welcoming. Beauty is expanding. Cultural construction slowly shifts.
Notes:
Art movements referred to in this writing include Classical Greek Art (510-323 BC), Renaissance Art (1400-1600), Romanticism (1780-1830), Realism (1848-1900), Impressionism (1865-1885), Neo-Impressionism (1884-1935), Art Noveau (1890-1910), Post-Impressionism (1885-1910), Fauvism (1900-1908), Expressionism (1905-1920), Cubism (1907-1914), Abstract Expressionism (1943-1965), Pop Art (1950s-1960s), Photography, Afrofuturism, and references to mass media, advertising, graphic art, fashion and editorial photography.