What is beauty or the sublime in respect to art. First what is the meaning of these two words. They are both often use in fact they are used too often. Football commentators scream “sublime shot”, I have described soup as sublime. And beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. What we see as beautiful in the west the east see the same thing differently.

So here the Oxford Concise Dictionary definition of the word beauty:

NOUN combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.

You can see straight away that this code of beauty is already subjective you can start to add your interpretation straight away. When you read these words what do you see? A person, a shape or a scene. These seven letters create so much in our minds it is a powerful word with different meaning between cultures, countries and people.

Here is the dictionary meaning of the word sublime:

ADJECTIVE

Of very great excellence or beauty.

VERB

elevate to a high degree of moral or spiritual purity or excellence.

“let your thoughts be sublimed by the spirit of God”

I have included both the adjective and the verb as I felt both were relevant in our art world. As an adjective it adds gravitas to the beauty of an object. I find it interesting that I immediately put this together with female ideas. Is this just me or is it in our society?

The verb adds a spiritual connotation to the word which fits our use here on a landscape course. When used it implies the presence of beauty to a level that would please the gods.

The word sublime has almost been overused In art I read an essay by Julian Bell on the Tate website entitled “contemporary art and the sublime”, in this essay Bell describes a painting he produced after visiting site at which the Russians had drilled into the ground prospecting for oil and gas. After deciding to burn off the excess gas they created an inferno which Bell saw as a vision of hell. He painted an 8 foot canvas. He compares what he has done to the work of (J Wright, Tate, 1776) . He compares the use of light in both pieces of work and says ‘such a light as that of the sun, immediately exerted on the eye, as it overpowers the sense, is a very great idea’. He means the light of the sun adds a sublime element to both works. When you look at both the bright sun of the infernos hits you like strong sunlight and overpowers the senses.

Next he discusses spaces that overpower the senses citing Richards Serras (Serras, R, Gugenheim Balboa, 2000) huge copper spaces in the Balboa Guggenheim Museum. You enter this installation and feel lost within it. The individual visitor is left to interpret the artwork for themselves. You must explore your feelings within this artwork.

He looks at an artist I explored earlier Edward Burtynsky and takes his work “Oil Spill 2” (Tate, 2010) he calls this work “Industrial Sublime” and I understand why it overloads our vision and takes some understanding once you see what it is, it makes us question mans place in the sublime.

Next he looks at mathematical sublime and Andreas Gurskys (Gursky, Berlin, 2000), photograph “Shanghai 2000”. It is just a photograph of the inside of a building however it has just as much structure and sublime beauty as Edward Weston’s (Nautilus, MoMA, 1936) photograph of  a Nautilus shell. It holds your eye and overwhelms your vision.

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This essay has made me realize that we can easily use this word. But to get the best from it we need to challenge our senses. My challenge to myself is to see if I can overload my senses in my local are  and create some sublime photographs on an ordinary day.

I like trees they add mystery to a landscape I am not the first to feel this Paul Nash said before the first world war tainted his eye “Trees are like beautiful people”. (P. Hendon, Art History) This might explain why his later paintings show broken trees maybe to represent the broken destroyed people he didn’t show. His trees add a sublime element to his paintings however they are painted.

He also captured photographs one was of a stone at Avebury Circle called Avebury Sentinel )P Nash, Tate, 1936) He took his photographs with a Kodak type 2 camera. They were taken to be used as sketches for his later paintings. Looking at the this photograph I see the trees I see in his paintings they give even a photo taken to record a large stone a different element. He looked for hidden elements in his paintings and you can see it in his photographs too. He couldn’t help himself.

I want to capture the open space where I live with its big skies and the trees of the area. These elements create a sublime landscape that changes minute by minute and day by day.

I have been reading a book by David Matless entitled Landscape and Englishness. In it I have been reading about the landscape I have taken in my shots for this assignment. I found this quote apt “If those men and women who, as my letter-bag so cleverly proved, are starting out in their thousands to discover rural England will see it not merely as a pretty picture but as a living thing……”.

This is what I want to show in the 12 shots I present..

References

Bell, Julian. Darvia. 2010. Oil on Canvas. Tate London.

Burtzynsky, Edward. Oil Spill2. 2010. Digital Colour Photograph. Tate London. Gurskys, Andreas. Shanghai 2000. 2000. Digital Colour Photograph. Berlin.

Hendon, Paul. Paul Nash Outline The Immortality of I. 20, n.d.

Hornblower, S, A Spawforth, and E Eidinow. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford Press, 2012. Morton, HV. In Search of England. Methuen & Co Ltd London, n.d.

Paul, Nash. Avebury Sentinel. 1936. Oil on Wood. Tate London.

Serras, Richard. Copper. 2000. Copper Sheet Instalation. Balboa Guggenheim Museum.

Weston, Edward. Nautilus. 1936. Silver Gelatin. MoMA New York.

Wright, Joseph. Vesuvius Erupting with a View of Naples Bay. 1780 1776. Oil on Canvas. Tate London.