Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Art

I have seen some really good thinking about, and references to, Art in the blogs over the past couple weeks.  I'm talking about big, wide, fundamental-concept-level discussions about Art.

The first one I noticed was the entry, Questions about Aesthetics and Art over at Shea's Blog.  It's a quick read.  As the title suggests, he raises more questions than he answers, and have wanted to sit down with his questions myself and give them a go, but Thanksgiving got in the way.  I still would like to do that, hopefully later this week. (I noticed, in writing this, that some comments have been added that were not there when I read this post initially.  I hope to follow up on those as well.)

In the comments on Shea's post, architect Peter Cresswell links to a blog post he wrote last January, Who Needs Great Art? at his blog, Not PC.  This longer post is very much worth the read, and the comments as well.  He does a great job of describing how art serves to present a condensed worldview that affirms one's own consciously and/or subconsciously held beliefs, complete with examples.  (I hope that's an accurate micro-summary.)

Then, yesterday, via Facebook, I learned of 2 additional offerings on Art.

Frederick Gibson, another deep-thinking Objectivist architect, posted What is Art? From Denis Dutton's "Art Instinct" over at the brand new site Lifestyle Dimensions.  This brief review of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution is the first installment of a series on different chapters from the book, and gives some very interesting insights on the internal process one goes through in the 'consumption' of a work of art.

Finally, Diana Hsieh posted Ready for the Day at NoodleFood, wherein she describes a print she had recently purchased and just taken delivery of.  I love how she describes why she chose this particular work, and what it means to her.  It is a great concretization of the descriptions of Art from the other posts.

My art form of choice these days is typically classical music, specifically, Beethoven.  To me, his works are the presentation of a world that is perfect, uncompromised, and heroic.  Some of his works are tragic, but many more of them are loving, uplifting, and benevolent, if not grand and triumphant.

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For tonight's menu, let's discuss Art.

Appetizer: What is your art form of choice?  (You may have more than one.)  How does your favorite art speak to you? What are your favorite specific works of art?

Drink Special:  What was the last art event that you attended, or a special event that made a lasting impression? (Concert, museum, theatre, etc.)  Think about your enjoyment of that event.  How did it make you feel?  What did you get out of it?

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Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, at the new OList Chatroom.  Check your OList email for the login and password.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

Your hosts for the OList Socials are @DianaHsieh, @laforgetm (aka William Green) and myself, @Earl3d