Truth-Goodness-Beauty-Mystery by Stephen Crotts
I had been wrestling with finding a definition of “Beauty”.
With such a simple and wonderful word you would think it wouldn’t be that hard – but then, try it. It’s not as easy as it seems. I was preparing for a lecture in Rock Hill, SC which during travels up the East Coast to my parents in Maryland. The topic was Beauty.
The easy part was that this was a topic that I had been immersed in for years. Along with her two sisters, Truth and Goodness, Beauty was a part of pretty much all my work since I had moved to New York City in 1998 and my subsequent move to Florida. When I met painter Mako Fujimura in 1999 at a prayer event my life in the arts began and Beauty was my muse. My friendship with Mako deepened, and others joined our little cadre of aesthetes including (among others) illustrator, John Hendrix and photographer and now installation artist, Ryann Cooley. We would gather almost weekly – coffee & bagel with a schmear in hand – and sit for an hour or more and talk about everything from the Yankees and Mets to the latest article in the New York Times about an art show in the MoMA or DUMBO (that’s “down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass”). At all times the three sisters of Truth, Goodness and Beauty danced around our table, in and out of our language and thoughts we shared.
So here I was, lecture deadline ahead and a need for a definition for Beauty.
Two definitions that I came across in my life with the arts were from Thomas Aquinas. The first was from his description of Beauty as having three characteristics: integrity or (also can be called) perfection, proportion or harmony, brightness or clarity. These are great characteristics and help give a level of focus, but there is still the question of WHAT pieces of art have integrity, proportion and brightness? There still seems to be that subjective perspective when it comes to things considered beautiful.
Thomas Aquinas – Carlo Crivelli – the Demidov altarpiece 1476, London National Gallery
This led me to Aquinas’ second definition which in Latin is “id quod visum placet” – “That which being seen, pleases.” At first glance this by itself would seem to mean “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. And in this there is a layer of truth. For example, I like the color orange, but you may not. I prefer orange (which may explain why I married a redhead) but you may like blue or some other color. Neither of these realities is wrong, just different.
But taking both these definitions of Aquinas’ together has to lead to a definition of Beauty that applies to everyone. This guided me to what has become the first part of Friday Arts Project’s vision statement, Beauty exists where Truth and Goodness meet Mystery.
Catholic theologian Hans urs von Balthasar described the virtues of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty as three sisters in a dance. He wrote that if Beauty were removed the other two sisters, Truth and Goodness would follow. The same could probably be said of all three – remove one and the other two will lose their ability to “dance” well.
A community needs artists to keep Beauty present, just as that same community needs lawyers, plumbers, gardeners, accountants etc. to help keep the other sisters in the “dance”. If artists are as vital a part as this, keeping Beauty present through their tangible activities, how could we not thrive? This is why Friday Arts Project’s vision statement says “Beauty exists where Truth and Goodness meet Mystery.”
Peace,
Kirk Irwin
