Grace and Necessity - Part One
- nadinepasin
- Sep 28, 2018
- 5 min read
"...the great problems of contemporary art are emotionalism and intellectualism : in a highly functionalist culture, the notion of gratuitous beauty becomes deeply problematic, so that a work is judged by its success in stimulating specific feelings or by its capacity to state what is in the artist's mind."
-Rowan Williams (Grace and Necessity, page 15)
Opening Thoughts
Woah – so much information to take in all at once. The way Rowan Williams writes is so intellectually rich; each thought and sentence is entirely individual yet connected to the previous and coming ones.
His writing was difficult to digest because of the depth and breadth it possesses. I wanted to soak up every little detail because his perspective seems unique and his writing is eloquent, complex, and formal without being uninviting to the reader.
Williams made me think in entirely new ways about art – and I’ve only made it through the first part! Really though, his perspective is influential and opens eyes to things unseen or conceptualized about what can be such a surface level, basic topic: what art is in the world and what it is to be an artist.
Moving Forward…
Because there is so much to understand and sit with about this first part in his book, Grace and Necessity, I will point out a couple different aspects that made the most sense to me and that I felt connected to.
In order to begin, I feel it is important to list out what Williams points out Jacques Maritan’s essentials of aesthetic to have somewhat of a central definition. Maritan, being one of the most central figures of the French Catholic revival at the start of the twentieth century, was influential to Williams’ thoughts on the matter.
The essentials are…
Art is the action of intelligence and shows how things are in the world
Art calls for contemplation: to be absorbed rather than used
Artists must not focus on the process but in the outcome of the artwork itself
We cannot seek beauty, it naturally comes out of the integrity of a work
Art uncovers the ordinary and different perspectives
Art rids us of our perception and opens our eyes to reality, making the world strange to us
“Things are more than they are,’ [and] ‘give more than they have” relating to the sacred (Williams, pg. 37-38)
Now, with this in mind, I would like to narrow in on number two and four.
Number two: Art calls for contemplation, to be absorbed rather than used
This was the first essential of Maritan’s to stick out to me. So often, I find myself just looking or making art and doing nothing more with it. In the first part, Williams takes this point even further and draws conclusions about what art fails. He says, based on Maritan’s essentials of aesthetic, that art is a failure if there is no truth or goodness and if it is a reproduces ordinary consciousness (Williams, pg. 38).
With that being said, art calling for contemplation is the contemplation on truth, goodness, and stretching the things we see in the world to be more abstract. If we move towards abstract art, we must attempt to have a blank slate mindset, much like God’s – but this is impossible for humans, due to all of our worldly experiences. So, if we take time contemplating, works will naturally succeed.
I do not create much work anymore in the studio art definition but I feel as though I can apply this to another one of my majors, Organizational Communication. Art in Org. Comm. is more about the public relations, writing, visual aspect of things. I have recently been creating a lot of materials to market the IDEA Center this semester and have been making slides and infographics to reach a specific audience. In order for those materials to be successful, I have to contemplate many things and absorb information from all different potential viewers in order for it to be a success. There is truth and goodness and much of what I must create has to be more abstract, getting the viewer to see the IDEA Center in a completely different way than their preconceived notions.
Number four: We cannot seek beauty, it naturally comes out of the integrity of a work
This essential really spoke to me personally. I think that beauty is such a difficult word to define. Each website I visited had a different definition and application for beauty in art. We spend so much time in our classes discussing the meaning of beauty and I always feel like we never really get to the point and end up just saying how beauty is just dependent on the eyes of the viewer, which is a frustrating definition to me. Beauty has adapted and changed so much over time in each tiny aspect of life. Just in the context of women's bodies, the definition of beauty has been altered, this video below shows just how much beauty has changed and references some artworks that show the change over time.
Integrity is also another word with a broad meaning. To me though, it means being proud and showcasing your one true self to others, in everything that you do. Within an artwork, it can be difficult to stick true to yourself because sometimes the art you are creating, isn’t art for yourself, especially in the business sense. I suppose as long as you start out being true to yourself, people will know what to expect and then gravitate to you for those reasons, and then it would reflect in your business of creating as well.
Williams discusses how beauty provides human satisfaction but it really doesn’t tell anyone anything. He goes further to say that there is always more than meets the eye and beauty is big, expansive, larger than what we can perceive. Williams says “If it is well and honestly made, it will tend towards beauty” (pg. 14). For me, that is such a relief. It is freeing to know that if I just do my best and be honest in my intentions of a work, it is something beautiful. Like we said in class, there is so much pressure to create things that are going to change the world, but that cannot actually be our intention as makers. We must create to create – be intentional and honest.
To Wrap it all Up
Yes, William’s thoughts are intense and articulated in a way that are sometimes trickier than a maze, but, at least in this first part, he wants us to understand what is essential to art and creating. Throughout the first part, he takes that overall arching theme and goes deeper into more specific aspects.
Overall, my biggest take away was the start of an application to art but also life. I want to spend more time in contemplation, thinking about the meanings of certain things I come across and what happens in life. I also want to be more intentional and be true to myself, show my integrity, in everything that I do, then something will actually be beautiful and I will not feel the pressure to get everything exactly right and perfect.
References
Williams, Rowan. Grace and Necessity: Reflections on Art and Love. Continuum, 2005.
“What Is Art? and/or What Is Beauty?” Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas, philosophynow.org/issues/108/What_is_Art_and_or_What_is_Beauty.
“‘The Necessity of Integrity in Art’ | News.” The Harvard Crimson, www.thecrimson.com/article/1910/2/25/the-necessity-of-integrity-in-art/.
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