Beauty in Art

When beholding a model or a scene in its totality all things seem to be numerous, various and adapted to the whole. For instance it seems that there are no unnecessary parts to any living thing and that everything in nature is in a harmony, but if we use a viewfinder to rope off a segment of nature we find the parts to be in conflict and full of disunity like the pounding on piano keys produces separate notes with no pleasing relationships among the intervals. The artist is one who gathers the notes and re-creates a new whole so as to foster beauty. Beauty in art emerges from the bonds among parts. Those who look at a good painting ought to praise the artist and admire the deliberately created resemblances and echoes between the parts of the painting. Admirable beauty is more to be treasured than mere enjoyable beauty. In a work of art all notes work together in a new and more interesting reality than in that mundane reality apprehended in a viewfinder. Hence in a work of fine art we are temporarily transported from that which is to that which could be, or moreover to that which ought to be.                                                                                                                

 Frank Webb