Martin Rice on sat 26 jan 02
In Wellek and Warren's classic "Theory of Literature," they speak of the
difference between what they call "easy beauty" and "difficult beauty."
Briefly, what they mean is that some subjects make it intrinsically easy to
create "beauty" -- think the horribly kitschy doe-eyed little girls in
portraits at Woolworth's; think landscapes with little lambs frolicking
among the flowers on green hills; think hackneyed love lyrics, etc.
Wellek and Warren were convinced that true art -- by definition beauty -- is
more often created from intrinsically ugly subjects and this is much more
difficult to create than true art from intrinsically beautiful subjects.
Think the tortured souls who people the novels of Dostoevsky; think the
sufferings depicted by Brueghel and the terror in Edvard Munch; think much
great religious art.
What you as an artist are doing with this commission, of course, is
attempting to create beauty from an intrinsically ugly subject. What this
means is that you're facing the challenge of creating "difficult beauty." I
guess what I'm trying to say is that you need to focus on creating beauty. I
think you're absolutely on the right track by asking yourself the questions
you've been asking as reflected in your letter to the list.
And one of the reasons I say that is because there is no art/beauty without
extensive, deep, soul-searching thought. And the biographies of the great
artists in all media tell us how much time and effort and emotional energy
they spent in thinking, indeed agonizing over what they were creating.
So I would suggest that you continue asking yourself the questions you are,
continue thinking about the complexities of rendering myth in visual form to
communicate the inherent beauty of that myth, no matter how ugly the subject
matter, forget about standard depictions of ugliness or what beauty and
ugliness mean, and ultimately inform your creation with the intellectual
framework you've created by your own contemplation of the meaning of the
myth itself.
Good luck,
Martin
Lagunas de Barú, Costa Rica
www.rice-family.org
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