Lauren Schaaf- Nietzsche

Nietzsche was another philosopher I had never heard of before reading the chapter about his beliefs about art as redemption in the nature of art book. He was known as dark and pessimistic, which I can relate to. He thought life was depressing which is more pessimistic than I agree with but he thought art was a way to make life bearable. I've read about art being a portrayal of reality and it was interesting to read about a man who thought of it as a positive thing.

He seemed to think that the purpose of art was to bring joy to people in their depressive lives. It seems a little dramatic to me but it's interesting to see how people value art so highly. Art has never been a significant part of my life that has brought me extreme joy. Although I can appreciate good art, it has rarely made me feel powerful. Tolstoy was a big advocate of art being important since it communicates the artist's feelings to the audience. I can usually distinguish emotions in art based on colors or human facial expressions but that's about the extent I analyze them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paul Chung: Aristotle on Art

Aristotle believed that art is imitation, and that it is a good thing. It pertains to humanity in ways that connects humanity. Imitation to Aristotle is relational in that humans learn from such as children. Even artistic values such as tragedies (mimesis) help to fosters an emotional connection to humankind. For Aristotle, a good tragedy produces Kartharis. Which is essentially, purification through pity and fear. The notion of imitation as a good thing, falls relatively short in that imitation is the reproduction or copy of something else. Whether it is a good copy or not, it derives from non original conditions.
Read more

Taylor Duffy - Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art

11/30 The part in reconsidering the spiritual in art that really struck me was the quote that said, "It was an artistic experience of art - a sense of the easy and seamless merger of religious and artistic experience, their inevitable reciprocity." In other words, you cannot have religion without art, and you cannot have art without religion. This made me think of van der leeuw's theological aesthetics section in Sacred and Profane Beauty. He states, "It is completely true that genuine, great art is, as a rule, also religious art; genuine, noble expression of the beautiful is simultaneously expression of the holy." This quote truly explains what art is and should be. It should be a creation of the most raw and spiritual experiences we have in our lives. This at least applies to great or fine art. It should evoke this holy awakening in the viewer. This is why creating art like singing a song or painting a fine painting is considered worship. There is such a ...
Read more

Beauty of Simple Worship

Tonight I witnessed something truly beautiful. The campus ministry, Cru, gathered in the chapel full of new faces and fresh first year students. I was running late, but when I arrived I did not feel late at all. I felt overwhelmingly welcome, included and invited in by new and old friends alike. Community is a truly beautiful privilege in life. I walk through the doors and the worship team was leading the filled room in song. There were no microphones, but we were going to lift our voices and our instruments to glorify Jesus regardless of technical difficulties. The night went on and the speaker delivered a message on the call to love Jesus and to love each other, which is a beautiful message in and of itself. However, the time came to close in song. This was when I recognized something spiritually greater than myself, while still not of its own divinity. In this time I experienced the biblical meaning of church. Again we stood to lift up the name of God. I closed my eyes, for I did no...
Read more