Art and Beauty

                                                                                                       

    

To me art is a visual expression of a time, experience or thought that can be expressed in the form of something visual. This expression is meant to be remembered in whatever way the artist wanted to depict it, or even just a memory of the past. Art is essentially everywhere or anything that involves creative thought.

                                                                           All art can be beautiful, but one person’s idea of beauty is different from another’s. Maybe beauty can be found in the way a painting it is painted and not in the subject, or in the use of symmetry or the color use. Someone who I think shows the dark side of beauty is Henry Fuseli, his paintings tend to have a dark disturbing element, but usually he seems to include a symbol of innocence and beauty. In his painting The Nightmare the curved shape that her body makes as it’s hanging off the bed seems dainty and elegant, even the soft white color of her dress shows innocence. As dark as this painting is, you can still find beauty in it.

                                                                                      Another great artist is Olaf Hajek, he is a German illustrator who I believe has an eye for beauty and color. Sometimes too much color can ruin a painting and make it chaotic, but Olaf has great use of color combinations that make his paintings visually appealing and vibrant. In his picture, Horoscope Illustration for Darmernas he used some symmetry, which is a form of beauty and balance to some. His paintings make the viewer feel transported to a dreamlike world that is delightful and beautiful. An artist whose paintings are beautiful for all the obvious reasons is Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s. In his painting The Roses of Heliogabalus there’s something about how the flower petals are floating through the wind and around the people that seems beautiful and almost heavenly like. Also his use of soft colors makes this painting feel light and effortlessly elegant. These paintings all show beauty but in different ways.

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781

Illustration fro Darmernas, by Olaf Hajek

The Roses of Heliogabalus, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1781