upper part of a painting, author: Anna Gulak
WHAT IS BEAUTY?
Undoubtedly it’ s what we like, what is generally described as “captivating,” “miraculous,” ” sublime” or “lovely.” One can find beauty in a landscape, in the proportionality of someone’s facial features, or in the warm smile of an older woman, reconciled with herself and the world. Beauty can be captured in the bud of a rose or in the colored composition of a painting. It can also be expressed through the harmony of proportions, as a certain aesthetic order or as a canon of beauty adopted in a certain society and time. Beauty is in the love of a mother, in the joy of a child, in an act of selfless love.
Its diversity shows that it is felt as a sensory impression or a spiritual feeling and can manifest itself in various forms : beauty of nature, phisical beauty of the human form, spiritual beauty and also as beauty of forms presented in reality or in the arts.
Over the centuries countless attempts have been made to define this idea. In ancient Greece, not only beauty was equated with the idea of goodness, spirituality, morality, order, reason and perfection but also all these qualities were required as a condition of beauty and art at the highest level. Later on this concept was limited to determining what produces the aesthetic experience: namely the overall processes taking place in human consciousness, caused by personal contact with the work of art (the aesthetic object).
Art has always been one of the basic elements of culture. Until the end of the nineteenth century its purpose was to satisfy the human needs for aesthetic experiences. Later on the understanding of art was volatile.
Perception of beauty is one of the basic categories of aesthetics defined by Aristotle as what is pleasant or by Kant as what is liked with subjective necessity in a universal, direct and sincere way, and showed great variability and ambiguity in the history of aesthetics. Determinations of beauty are typically and frequently encountered as the objective properties of objects (especially as their configurations), such as: harmony, symmetry, proportion, measure and order, visual or auditory quality, appropriateness or utility. Historically formed and socially shaped as an ideal in a given period of time, beauty became the foundation of artistic creation.
“A painter whose duty is to paint a picture should paint it as beautifully as he is able to. What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things. I would, however, like to understand beauty in this manner: we should strive to do what in the history of mankind, the majority think beauty to be. ” wrote Albrecht Durer.
In my works beauty is captured in still forms. It is captured motionless on a sheet of paper, on a piece of canvas or trapped in the shape of a sculptural mass. Like the artists of ancient Greece, I seek spiritual beauty in order to demonstrate and express the beauty that manifests itself in the body . I strive to maintain the balance between presenting the beauty of human shapes and the veracity of the reality. Greek sculpture does not idealize the abstract body, but rather seeks the ideal beauty creating a synthesis of living forms which expresses the psycho-physical beauty, harmonizing the soul and the body. It is the beauty of forms and the goodness of spirit. This is the ”kalokagatia” ideal, which also guides me in my work. This kind of beauty is best expressed by still forms, in which a fragment of action or movement finds its balance and in which the simplicity of expression fully corresponds to the variety of detail.
For me beauty is a value in itself and an autonomous state of being. It doesn’t only depend on the physical basis that expresses it. It is not related to this or any other physical object, but exists everywhere. Beauty is transcendental and refers to an intangible world outside us. It corresponds not only to what one sees but also to what is sometimes hidden and often not visible to ordinary mortals (like the famous outer ugliness of Socrates, who shone with inner beauty).
In past centuries a strong connection was assumed between beauty and goodness. For me beauty also equates to what is good, not just what is physically modeled as the perfection of proportion. It is not only reflected in the order and harmony of esthetic creation and acknowledged as a canon in a certain time and culture but also posseses spiritual values.
In my art I try to express beauty as a ”truth of character”, which realizes certain values, such as artistic expression, artistic truth and a romantic ambience, in order to emotionally address the soul of the beholder. I try to expose this truth in the portraits of people, in which the viewer perceives it, not only by reason, but also by emotion.
In my understanding , the true nature of beauty is not sensuous, but mystical. It is the beauty which emanates from God and shines not only on humans, but on the Whole Creation. I hope that the viewer perceives it in my art as a contemplation of some degree of supernatural perfection.
The mystical nature of beauty also becomes apparent in the tangible form, as the conjunction of individual components. It appears in the harmony of proportions of the human body (shown in my art in the paintings of the nude). I desire to express it through my art without restraint, with no hidden meanings, joyful in its existence and manifestations.
In addition to the symbolic and spiritual meaning, it also has another task – to provide the viewer an aesthetic pleasure. I want it to be perceived by senses and without dissonance. My goal is not only to express it in the physique of the female body but also to treat it as an important factor of the composition and the technique of all my works. Therefore, I take great interest in the aesthetics of formal solutions in all areas of my work.
I want the beauty to manifest itself in living and dynamic performance, not in the lifeless and static art. Therefore, I take care to present the human form with dynamism that creates the illusion of reality. The purpose of my work is to show the beauty that is astonishing and restless. Its goal is to forge the bystander’s attention.
The imagination is the most important factor in percepting my works, as well as in creating them. It is the subject and the basis of all of my creative work, because it represents the power capable of empirically capturing artistic and natural beauty.
Sublimity, is another important factor in my search for aesthetic expression, although in contemporary art one can see only negligible traces of it (and of aesthetics). Sublimity is the factor in which the whole majesty of symbolic beauty, which I wish to express in my art, reproduces itself in. Sublimity, like ” the echo of a great soul” emphasizes the great and noble passions, which involve the participation of the viewer’s emotions.
Enthusiasm stands first during my act of artistic creation. Creation is a fundamental human need, embedded deep in our nature. The desire to leave behind a trace or to create something has accompanied human nature since the dawn of history. One acknowledges this seeing prehistoric cave paintings, which demonstrate the existence, the power and the sense of belonging to a given place.
Every artist sees the world in a different way, just like each individual person perceives reality from a different point of view. Paul Klee wrote that “art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible.” Therefore, the basis of my actions and efforts is the need to show the beauty of Creation through my own individual language (by my subjective perception) and to place it before the eyes of those who are unable to see it in the surrounding reality.
