In the chapter entitled, Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty, Dave Hickey focuses on the idea that in contemporary art, Beauty is a means and not an end. What he means by this is that beauty sells and makes the content of art powerful to the beholder. I would definitely agree with this as for me, I tend to pay more attention to a piece that strikes me as beautiful than one I do not find aesthetically pleasing. Works that are not “pretty”, do not strike me as appealing and I thus do not search for meaning in such works. While every viewer may not have this perspective, I do feel this way and thus agree with Hickey’s claims.
For example, the works I posted are both about domestic abuse. The photo art, ‘Domestic Abuse Awareness’ by Juan Carlos Silva (below) is definitely more impactful for me than the less “beautiful” computer art, ‘Abuse’ depicting the same subject matter by Sunil India (above).
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