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At any time between 1750 and 1930, if you
had asked educated people to describe the
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aim of poetry, art or music,
they would have replied, beauty.
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And if you had asked
for the point of that,
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you would have learned
that beauty is a value,
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as important as
truth and goodness..
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Then, in the 20th century,
beauty stopped being important..
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Art increasingly aimed to disturb
and to break moral taboos.
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It was not beauty,
but originality,
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however achieved and at whatever
moral cost that won the prizes.
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Not only has art made
a cult of ugliness,
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architecture, too, has
become soulless and sterile.
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And it's not just our physical
surroundings that have become ugly.
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Our language, our music, and our
manners are increasingly raucous,
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self-centered, and
offensive, as though beauty
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and good taste have no
real place in our lives.
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One word is written large on all
these ugly things, and that word is me.
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My profits, my
desires, my pleasures.
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And art has nothing to say in
response to this, except, yeah, go for it.
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I think we are losing beauty,
and there is a danger
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that with it we will lose
the meaning of life.
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I'm Roger Scruton,
philosopher and writer.
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My trade is to ask questions.
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During the last few years, I have
been asking questions about beauty.
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Beauty has been central to our
civilization for over 2000 years.
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From its beginnings in ancient
Greece, philosophy has reflected on the
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place of beauty in art, poetry,
music, architecture and everyday life.
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Philosophers have
argued that through the
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pursuit of beauty, we
shape the world as a home.
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We also come to understand our
own nature as spiritual beings.
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But our world has turned
its back on beauty.
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And because of that, we find ourselves
surrounded by ugliness and alienation.
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I want to persuade you
that beauty matters.
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That it is not just a subjective thing,
but a universal need of human beings.
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If we ignore this need, we find
ourselves in a spiritual desert.
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I want to show you the
path out of that desert.
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And is a path that
leads to home.
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The great artists of the past
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were aware that human life
is full of chaos and suffering.
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But they had a remedy for this, and
the name of that remedy was beauty.
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The beautiful work of
art brings consolation
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in sorrow and
affirmation in joy.
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It shows human life
to be worthwhile.
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Many modern artists have
become weary of this sacred task.
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The randomness of
modern life, they think,
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could not be redeemed by art.
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Instead, it should be displayed.
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The pattern was set
nearly a century ago
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by the French artist
Marcel Duchamp,
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who signed a urinal with
a fictitious signature,
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R-Mut, and entered
it for an exhibition.
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His gesture was satirical,
designed to mock the world of art
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and the snobberies
that go with it.
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But it has been
interpreted in another way,
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as showing that
anything can be art.
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Like a light going on and off.
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A can of excrement.
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Or even a pile of bricks.
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No longer does art
have a sacred status.
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No longer does it raise us to a
higher moral or spiritual plane.
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It is just one human
gesture among others.
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No more meaningful
than a laugh or a shout.
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I think they're
making fun of us.
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It's a pile of bricks.
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Art once made a cult of beauty.
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Now we have a cult
of ugliness instead.
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Since the world is disturbing,
art should be disturbing too.
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Those who look for beauty in art are
just out of touch with modern realities.
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Sometimes the
intention is to shock us.
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But what is shocking first time round
is boring and vacuous when repeated.
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This makes art into
an elaborate joke,
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though one that by now
has ceased to be funny.
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Yet the critics go
on endorsing it,
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afraid to say that the
emperor has no clothes.
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Creative art is not achieved just
like that, simply by having an idea.
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Of course, ideas can be
interesting and amusing,
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but this doesn't justify the
appropriation of the label art.
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If a work of art is nothing
more than an idea,
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anybody can be an artist, and
any object can be a work of art.
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There is no longer any need
for skill, taste or creativity.
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What you were also attempting
to do, as I understand it,
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was to devalue the art as
an object simply by saying,
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if I say it's a work of art,
that makes it a work of art.
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Yeah, but the word work of art,
you see, is not so important for me.
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I don't care about the word
art because it's been so...
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you know, discredited
and so forth.
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But you, in fact,
contributed to the
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discrediting, didn't
you, quite deliberately?
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Deliberately, yes.
So I really want to get rid of it,
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because the way many people
today have done away with religion.
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People accepted Duchamp
at his own valuation.
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I think he did not get rid of
art, he just got rid of creativity.
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However, Duchamp's works are still
influencing the course of art today.
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Artist Michael Craig-Martin, who
taught several of the young British artists
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whose work dominates
the art world,
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followed Duchamp's example with his
own seminal work called An Oak Tree.
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This consists of a
glass of water on a shelf
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with a text explaining
why it is an oak tree.
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When I first entered St Peter's and
confronted Michelangelo's Pietà ,
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For me, that was a
transporting experience.
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My life was changed by this.
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00:09:01,928 --> 00:09:04,349
Do you think that someone
could have the same experience
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with Duchamp's urinal or
perhaps with your oak tree,
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which is, after all,
a similar thing?
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00:09:11,714 --> 00:09:17,994
I know that when I was a teenager
and I first came upon Duchamp
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and I first came upon
the Ready Maids,
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I was absolutely
stunned and amazement.
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I don't think people are overwhelmed by a
sense of beauty when they see the urinal.
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It's not meant to be beautiful.
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00:09:31,147 --> 00:09:33,433
But that doesn't mean
that there isn't something
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about it that doesn't
captivate the imagination.
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And I think captivate the imagination
is the key to what artwork seeks to do.
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Duchamp felt that art had become
too interested in techniques,
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too interested in optics.
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He felt that it had become
intellectually and morally corrupt.
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Now, his reason for making an
artwork that didn't fit the system
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was not cynicism.
It was in order to say,
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I'm trying to make an art
that denies all of the things
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that people say art should have.
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Because I'm trying to say that the central
question of art rests somewhere else.
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I take the point that
things had to change,
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and Duchamp was
trying to change them,
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00:10:18,895 --> 00:10:21,576
but what was he trying
to change them to?
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Well, he could never,
in his wildest dreams,
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have imagined that what
would happen would happen,
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or that he himself, I'm sure
he had no idea how central...
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The thing was that he had stumbled
upon, that he had come upon.
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Essentially that work of art is a work
of art because we think of it as such.
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00:10:42,437 --> 00:10:45,995
I also think it's important to say that
the notion of beauty has been extended
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to include things that would
not have been thought of.
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00:10:48,821 --> 00:10:51,438
That's part of the artist's
function, is to make beautiful,
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make one see
something as beautiful,
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something that nobody thought
was beautiful up until now.
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Right, a can of shit.
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00:10:57,986 --> 00:11:00,223
Well, I'm not sure
that it's beautiful,
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00:11:00,247 --> 00:11:03,945
but if you take an example
that's not trying to be beautiful,
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00:11:03,969 --> 00:11:05,810
if you take, say, Jeff Koons,
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00:11:06,590 --> 00:11:11,412
Jeff Koons has done some things
which are truly astoundingly beautiful.
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00:11:12,455 --> 00:11:15,839
It's like so much kitsch to
me, but kitsch with sugar on.
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This is the subject matter of his
work, not the substance of his work.
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What is the use of this art?
What does it help people to do?
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I think, hopefully, it allows people to see
the world in which they are living in a way
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that gives it more
meaning to them.
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00:11:37,096 --> 00:11:42,893
And it's not the world of an ideal world,
of some other world, some better place, but
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of the here and now,
of the world that they're
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in and of trying to live
more at ease within
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the world that they're given.
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So the art of today
shows us the world as it
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is, the here and now
and all its imperfections.
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But is the result really art?
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Surely something is
not a work of art just
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because it offers a
slice of reality, ugliness
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included and calls itself art?
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Art needs creativity
and creativity is about
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sharing.
It is a call to others to see the
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world as the artist sees it. That is why we
find beauty in the naive art of children.
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Children are not giving us ideas
in the place of creative images,
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nor are they
wallowing in ugliness.
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They're trying to affirm the world as
they see it and to share what they feel.
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00:13:06,524 --> 00:13:09,781
Something of the child's
pure delight in creation
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survives in every
true work of art.
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But creativity is not enough
and the skill of the true artist is
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to show the real in the light of
the ideal and so transfigure it.
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This is what Michelangelo achieves
in his great portrayal of David.
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But when we encounter a concrete
cast of the David, perhaps as
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part of some garden arrangement,
it is not beautiful at all.
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For it lacks the essential
ingredient of creativity.
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00:14:04,887 --> 00:14:08,008
Discussions of the kind I have
been having are dangerous.
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00:14:08,709 --> 00:14:12,388
In our democratic culture,
people often think it is threatening
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to judge another person's taste.
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00:14:17,416 --> 00:14:20,754
Some are even offended by the
suggestion that there is a difference
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between good and bad taste,
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or that it matters what you
look at or read or listen to.
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But this doesn't help anybody.
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There are standards of beauty which
have a firm base in human nature,
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and we need to look for them
and build them into our lives.
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Maybe people have
lost their faith in beauty
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because they have
lost their belief in ideals.
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All there is, they are tempted
to think, is the world of appetite.
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There are no values
other than utilitarian ones.
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Something has a
value if it has a use.
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And what's the use of beauty?
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00:15:06,929 --> 00:15:10,850
All art is absolutely
useless, wrote Oscar Wilde,
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who intended his
remark as praise,
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For wild, beauty was a
value higher than usefulness.
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00:15:18,994 --> 00:15:21,857
People need useless
things just as much as
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even more than they
need things for their use.
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Just think of it. What is the use
of love, of friendship, of worship?
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None whatsoever.
And the same goes for beauty.
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00:15:38,723 --> 00:15:42,025
Our consumer society
puts usefulness first,
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and beauty is no better
than a side effect.
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Since art is useless, it
doesn't matter what you read,
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00:15:50,390 --> 00:15:55,109
what you look at, what you listen to.
I see you, baby.
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Shaking that ass.
Shaking that ass.
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00:15:59,595 --> 00:16:02,493
We are besieged by
messages on every side,
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titillated, tempted by
appetite, never at rest.
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00:16:07,201 --> 00:16:11,203
And that is one reason why beauty
is disappearing from our world.
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Getting and spending, wrote
Wordsworth, we lay waste our powers.
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In our culture today, the advert is
more important than the work of art,
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00:16:25,813 --> 00:16:29,956
and artworks often try to capture
our attention as adverts do
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00:16:30,217 --> 00:16:36,661
by being brash or outrageous, like this
bejeweled platinum skull by Damien Hirst.
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00:16:37,903 --> 00:16:42,064
Like adverts, today's works
of art aim to create a brand,
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00:16:42,284 --> 00:16:45,985
even if they have no product
to sell except themselves.
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00:17:20,885 --> 00:17:23,365
Beauty is assailed
from two directions,
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00:17:23,545 --> 00:17:26,086
by the cult of
ugliness in the arts
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00:17:26,426 --> 00:17:29,446
and by the cult of
utility in everyday life.
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00:17:29,867 --> 00:17:34,127
These two cults come together in
the world of modern architecture.
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00:17:38,188 --> 00:17:42,425
At the turn of the 20th
century, architects, like artists,
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00:17:42,449 --> 00:17:46,789
began to be impatient with
beauty and to put utility in its place.
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00:17:50,616 --> 00:17:55,554
The American architect, Louis Sullivan,
expressed the credo of the modernists
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00:17:55,578 --> 00:17:58,219
when he said that
form follows function.
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00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:02,641
In other words, stop thinking
about the way a building looks
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00:18:02,762 --> 00:18:05,002
and think instead
about what it does.
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00:18:08,484 --> 00:18:13,182
Sullivan's doctrine has been used to
justify the greatest crime against beauty
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00:18:13,206 --> 00:18:17,928
that the world has yet seen, and that
is the crime of modern architecture.
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00:18:36,878 --> 00:18:39,813
I grew up near Reading,
which was a charming
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00:18:39,837 --> 00:18:42,599
Victorian town, with
terraced streets and
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00:18:42,623 --> 00:18:45,498
Gothic churches,
crowned by elegant public
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00:18:45,522 --> 00:18:48,624
buildings and smart hotels.
But in the 1960s,
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00:18:48,648 --> 00:18:49,868
things began to change.
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00:18:51,771 --> 00:18:54,365
Here, in the centre,
the homely streets were
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00:18:54,389 --> 00:18:56,832
demolished to make
way for office blocks,
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00:18:56,872 --> 00:19:02,354
a bus station and car parks, all designed
without consideration for beauty.
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00:19:02,914 --> 00:19:07,875
And the result proves as clearly as
can be that if you consider only utility,
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00:19:08,035 --> 00:19:10,776
the things you build
will soon be useless.
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00:19:12,378 --> 00:19:15,840
This building is boarded up
because nobody has a use for it.
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00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:19,062
Nobody has a use for it
because nobody wants to be in it.
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00:19:19,122 --> 00:19:22,324
Nobody wants to be in it because
the thing is so damned ugly.
228
00:19:35,272 --> 00:19:38,994
Everywhere you turn, there
is ugliness and mutilation.
229
00:19:39,654 --> 00:19:42,496
The offices and bus station
have been abandoned.
230
00:19:43,218 --> 00:19:47,281
The only things at home here are
the pigeons fouling the pavements.
231
00:19:48,523 --> 00:19:50,484
Everything has been vandalised.
232
00:19:51,845 --> 00:19:53,827
But we shouldn't
blame the vandals.
233
00:19:54,047 --> 00:19:56,129
This place was built by vandals,
234
00:19:56,209 --> 00:19:59,932
and those who added the
graffiti merely finished the job.
235
00:20:04,696 --> 00:20:08,159
Most of our towns and
cities have areas like this.
236
00:20:08,401 --> 00:20:11,642
In which buildings erected
merely for their utility
237
00:20:11,823 --> 00:20:13,763
have rapidly become useless,
238
00:20:14,384 --> 00:20:17,285
not that architects
learned from the disaster.
239
00:20:33,869 --> 00:20:36,607
When the public began
to react against the
240
00:20:36,631 --> 00:20:39,649
brutal concrete style
of the 1960s, architects
241
00:20:39,673 --> 00:20:42,534
simply replaced it with
a new kind of junk.
242
00:20:43,035 --> 00:20:48,419
Glass walls hung on steel frames
with absurd details that don't match.
243
00:20:48,919 --> 00:20:54,223
The result is another kind of failure to
fit, and is there simply to be demolished.
244
00:21:10,841 --> 00:21:13,430
In the midst of all this
desolation, we find
245
00:21:13,454 --> 00:21:16,183
a fragment of the streets
that were destroyed.
246
00:21:17,584 --> 00:21:20,205
Once a forge, now a cafe.
247
00:21:20,585 --> 00:21:26,424
People come here from all around because it
is the last bit of life remaining, and the
248
00:21:26,448 --> 00:21:28,629
life comes from the building.
249
00:21:40,761 --> 00:21:45,582
This returns me to Oscar Wilde's
remark that all art is absolutely useless.
250
00:21:46,683 --> 00:21:49,724
Put usefulness
first and you lose it.
251
00:21:50,164 --> 00:21:52,701
Put beauty first and what you do
252
00:21:52,725 --> 00:21:56,403
will be useful forever.
It turns out
253
00:21:56,427 --> 00:21:59,508
that nothing is more
useful than the useless.
254
00:22:04,790 --> 00:22:09,252
We see this in traditional
architecture with its decorative details.
255
00:22:10,373 --> 00:22:13,111
Ornaments liberate
us from the tyranny of
256
00:22:13,135 --> 00:22:16,095
the useful and satisfy
our need for harmony.
257
00:22:16,755 --> 00:22:20,132
In a strange way, they
make us feel at home. They
258
00:22:20,156 --> 00:22:23,557
remind us that we have
more than practical needs.
259
00:22:23,878 --> 00:22:28,259
We are not just governed by animal
appetites like eating and sleeping.
260
00:22:28,679 --> 00:22:34,861
We have spiritual and moral needs too, and
if those needs go unsatisfied, so do we.
261
00:22:56,643 --> 00:23:01,623
We all know what it is like, even in the
everyday world, suddenly to be transported
262
00:23:01,647 --> 00:23:04,507
by the things we see,
from the ordinary world
263
00:23:04,531 --> 00:23:08,492
of our appetites to the illuminated
sphere of contemplation.
264
00:23:11,965 --> 00:23:16,386
A flash of sunlight, a remembered
melody, the face of someone loved,
265
00:23:16,446 --> 00:23:19,587
these dawn on us in the
most distracted moments,
266
00:23:19,907 --> 00:23:22,327
and suddenly,
life is worthwhile.
267
00:23:30,569 --> 00:23:32,430
These are timeless moments
268
00:23:32,530 --> 00:23:36,350
in which we feel the presence
of another and higher world.
269
00:23:40,247 --> 00:23:44,315
From the beginning of western
civilisation, poets and philosophers
270
00:23:44,339 --> 00:23:48,247
have seen the experience of
beauty as calling us to the divine.
271
00:23:51,673 --> 00:23:55,868
Plato, writing in Athens in
the 4th century BC, argued
272
00:23:55,892 --> 00:23:59,958
that beauty is the sign of
another and higher order.
273
00:24:03,642 --> 00:24:06,963
Beholding beauty with the
eye of the mind, he wrote,
274
00:24:07,004 --> 00:24:09,765
you will be able to
nourish true virtue
275
00:24:09,905 --> 00:24:11,826
and become the friend of God.
276
00:24:16,109 --> 00:24:18,090
Plato was an idealist.
277
00:24:18,571 --> 00:24:21,548
He believed that human
beings are pilgrims
278
00:24:21,572 --> 00:24:23,513
and passengers in this world,
279
00:24:23,714 --> 00:24:26,135
who are always
aspiring beyond it
280
00:24:26,455 --> 00:24:29,857
to the eternal realm where
we will be united with God.
281
00:24:35,977 --> 00:24:39,953
God exists in a transcendental
world to which we
282
00:24:39,977 --> 00:24:43,977
humans aspire but which
we cannot know directly.
283
00:24:47,103 --> 00:24:50,066
But one way of glimpsing
that heavenly sphere
284
00:24:50,090 --> 00:24:53,206
here below is through
the experience of beauty.
285
00:24:58,348 --> 00:25:00,189
This leads to a paradox.
286
00:25:00,871 --> 00:25:03,929
For Plato, beauty was
first and foremost the
287
00:25:03,953 --> 00:25:07,035
beauty of the human
face and the human form.
288
00:25:07,616 --> 00:25:13,239
The love of beauty, he thought, originates
in Eros, a passion that all of us feel.
289
00:25:13,700 --> 00:25:16,582
We would call this
passion romantic love.
290
00:25:17,042 --> 00:25:20,114
For Plato, Eros was
a cosmic force which
291
00:25:20,138 --> 00:25:23,686
flows through us in the
form of sexual desire.
292
00:25:28,010 --> 00:25:30,611
But if human beauty
arouses desire...
293
00:25:31,453 --> 00:25:33,994
How can it have anything
to do with the divine?
294
00:25:34,814 --> 00:25:38,455
Desire is for the individual,
living in this world.
295
00:25:38,995 --> 00:25:40,795
It is an urgent passion.
296
00:25:43,396 --> 00:25:46,357
Sexual desire presents
us with a choice,
297
00:25:47,177 --> 00:25:52,018
adoration or
appetite, love or lust.
298
00:25:52,899 --> 00:25:56,700
Lust is about taking,
but love is about giving.
299
00:26:01,695 --> 00:26:05,493
Lust brings ugliness, the
ugliness of human relations
300
00:26:05,517 --> 00:26:10,339
in which one person treats
another as a disposable instrument.
301
00:26:12,861 --> 00:26:16,103
To reach the source of
beauty, we must overcome lust.
302
00:26:33,542 --> 00:26:38,403
This longing without lust is what
we mean today by platonic love.
303
00:26:41,144 --> 00:26:43,885
When we find beauty
in a youthful person,
304
00:26:44,085 --> 00:26:46,826
it is because we glimpse
the light of eternity
305
00:26:46,866 --> 00:26:51,028
shining in those features from a
heavenly source beyond this world.
306
00:26:57,190 --> 00:27:00,205
The beautiful human
form is an invitation to
307
00:27:00,229 --> 00:27:03,132
unite with it spiritually,
not physically.
308
00:27:05,682 --> 00:27:10,484
Our feeling for beauty is, therefore,
a religious and not a sensual emotion.
309
00:27:18,849 --> 00:27:21,450
This theory of
Plato's is astonishing.
310
00:27:21,831 --> 00:27:24,972
Beauty, he thought, is a
visitor from another world.
311
00:27:25,333 --> 00:27:29,475
We can do nothing with it, save
contemplate its pure radiance.
312
00:27:29,895 --> 00:27:34,918
Anything else pollutes and desecrates
it, destroying its sacred aura.
313
00:27:44,313 --> 00:27:47,934
Plato's theory may seem
quaint to people today,
314
00:27:48,395 --> 00:27:51,596
but it is one of the most
influential theories in history.
315
00:27:52,797 --> 00:27:56,295
Throughout our civilisation,
poets, storytellers,
316
00:27:56,319 --> 00:27:58,616
painters, priests
and philosophers
317
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:02,522
have been inspired by
Plato's views on sex and love.
318
00:28:08,639 --> 00:28:11,689
If you were to just look in the
poetry corner, as to the books by
319
00:28:11,713 --> 00:28:14,880
people who have tried to express
the platonic vision of the erotic.
320
00:28:14,904 --> 00:28:16,685
Let's see where there is.
321
00:28:19,507 --> 00:28:22,520
Thomas Mallory's Mort
D'Arthur, John Donne,
322
00:28:22,544 --> 00:28:25,651
Here and There, Gawain
and the Green Knight,
323
00:28:26,352 --> 00:28:30,241
Chaucer, especially The Knight's
Tale, The Poems of the Pearl
324
00:28:30,265 --> 00:28:34,177
Manuscript, Incredible Expressions
of the Platonic Worldview.
325
00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:39,303
Cavalcanti, who was the master of
Dante, and Dante himself definitely.
326
00:28:40,284 --> 00:28:43,843
Oh, Spencer, of course.
The fairy queen.
327
00:28:43,867 --> 00:28:47,110
Daffodup Willem, to take
the Welsh version of it all.
328
00:28:47,350 --> 00:28:49,928
The women troubadours.
Christina Rossetti.
329
00:28:49,952 --> 00:28:53,515
I thought you could be a
bit more Victorian about it.
330
00:28:54,792 --> 00:28:56,257
And so it goes on.
331
00:29:09,292 --> 00:29:12,479
The early Renaissance
painter Sandro Botticelli
332
00:29:12,503 --> 00:29:15,714
illustrated the theory
in this famous painting,
333
00:29:15,754 --> 00:29:19,795
which shows the birth of
Venus, goddess of erotic love.
334
00:29:21,136 --> 00:29:24,937
Venus looks on the world
from a place beyond desire.
335
00:29:25,597 --> 00:29:28,970
She is inviting us to
transcend our earthly appetites
336
00:29:29,036 --> 00:29:32,760
and unite with her through
the pure love of beauty.
337
00:29:36,079 --> 00:29:38,920
Botticelli's model was
Simonetta Vespucci.
338
00:29:39,620 --> 00:29:42,741
Botticelli loved her until
the end of her short life
339
00:29:42,982 --> 00:29:45,363
and actually asked to
be buried at her feet.
340
00:29:46,183 --> 00:29:49,000
She represented
for him Plato's ideal.
341
00:29:49,024 --> 00:29:52,986
This was beauty to be
contemplated but not possessed.
342
00:29:56,848 --> 00:30:00,065
Plato and Botticelli are
telling us that real beauty
343
00:30:00,089 --> 00:30:02,370
lies beyond sexual desire.
344
00:30:02,891 --> 00:30:07,014
So we can find beauty not only
in a desirable young person,
345
00:30:07,294 --> 00:30:11,336
but also in a face full of
age, grief, and wisdom,
346
00:30:11,417 --> 00:30:13,198
such as Rembrandt painted.
347
00:30:20,863 --> 00:30:24,845
The beauty of a face is a
symbol of the life expressed in it.
348
00:30:25,766 --> 00:30:27,847
It is flesh becomes spirit,
349
00:30:28,247 --> 00:30:30,004
and in fixing our eyes on it,
350
00:30:30,028 --> 00:30:32,650
we seem to see right
through into the soul.
351
00:30:35,952 --> 00:30:39,099
Painters like Rembrandt
are important for showing us
352
00:30:39,123 --> 00:30:42,235
that beauty is an ordinary,
everyday kind of thing.
353
00:30:42,896 --> 00:30:48,278
It lies all around us. We need only
the eyes to see it and the hearts to feel.
354
00:30:48,879 --> 00:30:52,017
The most ordinary event
can be made into something
355
00:30:52,041 --> 00:30:55,823
beautiful by a painter who can
see into the heart of things.
356
00:31:09,333 --> 00:31:12,331
So long as the belief in a
transcendental God was
357
00:31:12,355 --> 00:31:15,377
firmly anchored in the
heart of our civilization,
358
00:31:15,718 --> 00:31:20,421
artists and philosophers continued
to think of beauty in Plato's way.
359
00:31:21,763 --> 00:31:25,545
Beauty was the revelation
of God in the here and now.
360
00:31:28,908 --> 00:31:32,190
This religious approach to the
beautiful lasted for 2,000 years,
361
00:31:34,254 --> 00:31:39,837
But in the 17th century, the Scientific
Revolution began to sow the seeds of doubt.
362
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:46,149
The Medieval Church
accepted the ancient view
363
00:31:46,173 --> 00:31:49,424
that the Earth lies at the
centre of the universe.
364
00:31:52,206 --> 00:31:57,269
Then Copernicus and Galileo
proved that the Earth circles the Sun.
365
00:31:58,270 --> 00:32:00,351
And Newton completed their work.
366
00:32:00,573 --> 00:32:03,171
Describing a clockwork universe
367
00:32:03,195 --> 00:32:07,197
in which each moment follows
mechanically from the one before.
368
00:32:14,624 --> 00:32:16,825
This was the
Enlightenment vision.
369
00:32:17,207 --> 00:32:21,849
Which described our world as though there
were no place in it for gods and spirits,
370
00:32:22,029 --> 00:32:26,671
no place for values and
ideals, no place for anything,
371
00:32:26,911 --> 00:32:31,833
save the regular clockwork movement,
which turned the moon around the earth
372
00:32:31,934 --> 00:32:36,075
and the earth around the sun
for no purpose whatsoever.
373
00:32:42,098 --> 00:32:46,060
At the heart of Newton's
universe is a god-shaped hole.
374
00:32:46,581 --> 00:32:52,285
A spiritual vacuum, and one philosopher
in particular set out to fill this vacuum.
375
00:32:52,666 --> 00:32:54,987
That is the third
Earl of Shaftesbury.
376
00:32:58,730 --> 00:33:02,632
Science explains things,
but, thought Shaftesbury,
377
00:33:02,773 --> 00:33:06,255
its account of the world
is in one way incomplete.
378
00:33:06,816 --> 00:33:10,098
We can see the world
from another perspective,
379
00:33:10,458 --> 00:33:13,340
not seeking to
use it or explain it,
380
00:33:13,620 --> 00:33:16,222
but simply contemplating
its appearance.
381
00:33:16,564 --> 00:33:19,786
As we might contemplate
a landscape or a flower.
382
00:33:23,929 --> 00:33:27,011
The idea that the world
is intrinsically meaningful,
383
00:33:27,271 --> 00:33:31,754
full of an enchantment that it needs
no religious doctrine to perceive,
384
00:33:32,155 --> 00:33:34,276
answered to a deep
emotional need.
385
00:33:34,656 --> 00:33:39,339
Beauty was not planted in the world
by God, but discovered there by people.
386
00:33:55,822 --> 00:33:59,624
Shaftesbury's idea
encouraged the cult of beauty,
387
00:33:59,884 --> 00:34:02,841
which raised the
appreciation of art and nature
388
00:34:02,865 --> 00:34:06,307
to the place once occupied
by the worship of God.
389
00:34:07,428 --> 00:34:11,729
Beauty was to fill the God-shaped
hole made by science.
390
00:34:15,872 --> 00:34:19,690
Artists were no longer
illustrators of the sacred stories
391
00:34:19,714 --> 00:34:21,934
who worked as
servants of the Church.
392
00:34:22,355 --> 00:34:25,356
They were discovering
the stories for themselves.
393
00:34:25,517 --> 00:34:27,938
By interpreting the
secrets of nature.
394
00:34:28,558 --> 00:34:32,155
Landscapes, which used to be
mere backgrounds to holy images,
395
00:34:32,179 --> 00:34:33,799
became foregrounds,
396
00:34:34,119 --> 00:34:37,800
with the human figure
often lost in their folds.
397
00:34:42,961 --> 00:34:45,937
But for Shaftesbury, it
does not need a work of art
398
00:34:45,961 --> 00:34:48,462
to present us with the
beauty of the world.
399
00:34:48,882 --> 00:34:53,983
We simply need to look on things
with clear eyes and free emotion.
400
00:34:58,277 --> 00:35:02,407
Chelsea is telling us to stop
using things stop explaining
401
00:35:02,431 --> 00:35:06,022
them and exploiting them,
but look at them instead
402
00:35:06,482 --> 00:35:08,664
Then we will understand
what they mean
403
00:35:09,184 --> 00:35:12,086
The message of the
flower is the flower
404
00:35:23,755 --> 00:35:26,356
Zen Buddhists have
said similar things
405
00:35:27,018 --> 00:35:30,681
Only by leaving all our interests
and business to one side
406
00:35:30,721 --> 00:35:33,744
do we encounter the
real truth of the flower.
407
00:35:34,424 --> 00:35:38,047
Seeing things that way,
we discover their beauty.
408
00:35:45,273 --> 00:35:49,256
The greatest philosopher of the
Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant,
409
00:35:49,457 --> 00:35:52,659
was profoundly influenced
by Shaftesbury's idea.
410
00:35:53,882 --> 00:35:56,999
Kant argued that the
experience of beauty
411
00:35:57,023 --> 00:36:00,388
comes when we put
our interests to one side,
412
00:36:00,709 --> 00:36:03,168
when we look on things
not in order to use
413
00:36:03,192 --> 00:36:05,790
them for our purposes
or to explain how they
414
00:36:05,814 --> 00:36:09,237
work or to satisfy
some need or appetite,
415
00:36:09,261 --> 00:36:14,061
but simply to absorb them
and to endorse what they are.
416
00:36:21,973 --> 00:36:26,974
Consider the joy you might feel when
you hold a friend's baby in your arms.
417
00:36:27,594 --> 00:36:29,874
You don't want to do
anything with the baby.
418
00:36:30,095 --> 00:36:32,931
You don't want to eat
it, to put it to any use,
419
00:36:32,955 --> 00:36:35,576
or to conduct scientific
experiments on it.
420
00:36:36,756 --> 00:36:41,933
You want simply to look at it and to
feel the great surge of delight that comes
421
00:36:41,957 --> 00:36:46,759
when you focus all your thoughts on
this baby and none at all on yourself.
422
00:36:51,801 --> 00:36:55,743
That is what Kant described
as a disinterested attitude,
423
00:36:56,184 --> 00:37:00,206
and it is the attitude that underlies
our experience of beauty.
424
00:37:03,549 --> 00:37:05,886
To explain this is
extremely difficult,
425
00:37:05,910 --> 00:37:09,629
because if you haven't experienced
it, you don't really know what it is.
426
00:37:09,653 --> 00:37:13,175
But everybody listening to
a beautiful piece of music,
427
00:37:13,895 --> 00:37:15,836
looking at a
sublime landscape...
428
00:37:16,979 --> 00:37:21,462
Reading a poem which seems to contain
the essence of the thing it describes,
429
00:37:21,702 --> 00:37:26,386
everybody in an experience like
that says, yes, this is enough.
430
00:37:33,491 --> 00:37:36,413
But why is this
experience so important?
431
00:37:37,274 --> 00:37:42,534
The encounter with beauty is so
vivid, so immediate, so personal
432
00:37:42,558 --> 00:37:45,780
that it seems hardly to
belong to the ordinary world.
433
00:37:46,822 --> 00:37:49,984
Yet beauty shines on
us from ordinary things.
434
00:37:50,845 --> 00:37:54,947
Is it a feature of the world or
a figment of the imagination?
435
00:37:58,774 --> 00:38:03,895
Most of the time, our lives are
organized by our everyday concerns.
436
00:38:04,295 --> 00:38:09,016
But every now and then, we find
ourselves jolted out of our complacency
437
00:38:09,136 --> 00:38:12,492
in the presence of something
vastly more important
438
00:38:12,516 --> 00:38:15,517
than our immediate
desires and interests.
439
00:38:15,757 --> 00:38:17,617
Something not of this world.
440
00:38:20,138 --> 00:38:23,914
From Plato to Kant,
philosophers have tried to capture
441
00:38:23,938 --> 00:38:27,139
the peculiar way in which
beauty dawns on us.
442
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:32,360
like a sudden ray of
sunlight, or a surge of love.
443
00:38:33,821 --> 00:38:37,338
For Plato, the only explanation
of such an experience
444
00:38:37,362 --> 00:38:39,482
was its transcendental origin.
445
00:38:39,803 --> 00:38:42,423
It speaks to us like
the voice of God.
446
00:38:46,924 --> 00:38:50,001
And Kant, too, in a
much more sober way,
447
00:38:50,025 --> 00:38:52,182
believed that the
experience of beauty
448
00:38:52,206 --> 00:38:55,127
connects us with the
ultimate mystery of being.
449
00:38:58,036 --> 00:39:01,717
Through beauty we are brought
into the presence of the sacred.
450
00:39:07,699 --> 00:39:10,355
We can understand what
such philosophers mean
451
00:39:10,379 --> 00:39:13,960
if we reflect on what we feel
in the presence of death,
452
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,861
especially the death
of someone loved.
453
00:39:18,101 --> 00:39:22,222
We look with awe on the human
body from which the life has fled.
454
00:39:22,843 --> 00:39:25,463
We are reluctant to
touch the dead body.
455
00:39:25,824 --> 00:39:29,201
We see it as not properly
a part of our world,
456
00:39:29,225 --> 00:39:31,806
almost a visitor from
some other sphere.
457
00:39:39,128 --> 00:39:43,266
And the same sense of the
transcendental arises in the experience
458
00:39:43,290 --> 00:39:47,871
that inspired Plato, the
experience of falling in love.
459
00:39:54,311 --> 00:39:56,813
This, too, is a human universal,
460
00:39:57,133 --> 00:40:00,134
and it is an experience
of the strangest kind.
461
00:40:00,755 --> 00:40:05,797
The face and body of the beloved
are imbued with the intensest life,
462
00:40:06,258 --> 00:40:10,700
but in one crucial respect, they
are like the body of someone dead.
463
00:40:12,621 --> 00:40:15,643
They seem not to belong
in the everyday world.
464
00:40:16,944 --> 00:40:20,806
Poets have expended thousands
of words on this experience,
465
00:40:20,926 --> 00:40:23,887
which no words seem
entirely to capture.
466
00:40:27,211 --> 00:40:30,033
But these great changes
in the stream of life,
467
00:40:30,453 --> 00:40:32,794
the urge to unite
with another person,
468
00:40:32,834 --> 00:40:34,595
the loss of someone loved,
469
00:40:35,055 --> 00:40:38,157
are moments that we
understand as sacred.
470
00:40:52,238 --> 00:40:54,870
If we look at the history
of the idea of beauty
471
00:40:54,894 --> 00:40:57,716
we see that philosophers
and artists have had good
472
00:40:57,740 --> 00:41:00,653
reason to connect the
beautiful and the sacred
473
00:41:00,677 --> 00:41:03,738
and to see our need for
beauty as something deep
474
00:41:03,762 --> 00:41:07,580
in our nature, part of our
longing for consolation
475
00:41:07,604 --> 00:41:10,844
in a world of danger,
sorrow and distress.
476
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:23,117
Today, many artists look on
the idea of beauty with disdain,
477
00:41:23,141 --> 00:41:26,559
a leftover from a
vanished way of living
478
00:41:26,583 --> 00:41:30,305
which has no real connection with
the world which now surrounds us.
479
00:41:33,947 --> 00:41:38,850
So there has been a desire to desecrate
the experiences of sex and death
480
00:41:39,050 --> 00:41:42,552
by displaying them in
trivial and impersonal ways
481
00:41:42,692 --> 00:41:46,134
that destroy all sense of
their spiritual significance.
482
00:41:56,500 --> 00:41:59,013
Just as those who lose
their religion have an
483
00:41:59,037 --> 00:42:01,463
urge to mock the faith
that they have lost,
484
00:42:01,703 --> 00:42:04,596
so do artists today
feel an urge to treat
485
00:42:04,656 --> 00:42:09,468
human life in demeaning ways
and to mock the pursuit of beauty.
486
00:42:14,070 --> 00:42:18,173
This willful desecration
is also a denial of love,
487
00:42:18,253 --> 00:42:23,036
an attempt to remake the world as
though love were no longer a part of it.
488
00:42:23,437 --> 00:42:25,949
And this, it seems
to me, is the most
489
00:42:25,973 --> 00:42:28,977
important feature of
our postmodern culture,
490
00:42:29,001 --> 00:42:34,965
that it is a loveless culture, determined
to portray the human world as unlovable.
491
00:42:42,052 --> 00:42:46,935
Of course, this habit of dwelling on the
distressing side of human life isn't new.
492
00:42:47,535 --> 00:42:51,858
From the beginning of our civilization,
it has been one of the tasks of art
493
00:42:51,898 --> 00:42:55,300
to take what is most painful
in the human condition
494
00:42:55,340 --> 00:42:58,282
and to redeem it
in a work of beauty.
495
00:43:02,925 --> 00:43:05,606
Oh, you are men of stones!
496
00:43:06,388 --> 00:43:09,414
Had I your tongues and eyes,
497
00:43:09,608 --> 00:43:13,691
I'd use them so that
heaven's vaults should crack.
498
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:20,455
She's gone forever.
499
00:43:40,965 --> 00:43:44,219
Art has the ability to
redeem life by finding
500
00:43:44,243 --> 00:43:47,308
beauty even in the
worst aspect of things.
501
00:43:50,209 --> 00:43:55,071
Mantegna's crucifixion, displaying
the cruelest and most ugly of deaths,
502
00:43:55,332 --> 00:44:00,814
achieves a kind of majesty and serenity.
It redeems the horror that it shows.
503
00:44:01,795 --> 00:44:04,697
In the face of death,
human beings can
504
00:44:04,721 --> 00:44:08,098
still show nobility,
compassion and dignity,
505
00:44:08,398 --> 00:44:10,696
and art helps us
to accept death.
506
00:44:10,720 --> 00:44:13,201
By presenting
it in such a light.
507
00:44:19,743 --> 00:44:24,165
What about things which are not
tragic, but merely sordid or depraved?
508
00:44:24,365 --> 00:44:26,806
Can art find beauty even here?
509
00:44:37,390 --> 00:44:43,472
This painting by Delacroix shows us the
artist's bed in all its sordid disorder.
510
00:44:44,272 --> 00:44:49,770
He too is bringing beauty to a thing that
lacks it and bestowing a kind of blessing
511
00:44:49,794 --> 00:44:51,695
on his own emotional chaos.
512
00:44:54,919 --> 00:45:00,278
Delacroix says, see how these sweat-stained
sheets record the troubled dreams,
513
00:45:00,302 --> 00:45:03,404
the tormented energy of the
person who has left them,
514
00:45:03,664 --> 00:45:08,226
and how the light picks them out as though
they are still animated by the sleeper.
515
00:45:09,387 --> 00:45:13,789
The bed is transformed by the
creative act to become something else,
516
00:45:13,949 --> 00:45:16,350
a vivid symbol of
the human condition,
517
00:45:16,470 --> 00:45:19,652
and one which makes a bond
between us and the artist.
518
00:45:27,979 --> 00:45:30,807
Some people describe
Tracy Emin's bed in that
519
00:45:30,831 --> 00:45:33,559
way, but there is all
the difference in the
520
00:45:33,583 --> 00:45:36,876
world between a real
work of art which makes
521
00:45:36,900 --> 00:45:40,143
ugliness beautiful and
the fake work of art
522
00:45:40,167 --> 00:45:42,729
which shares the
ugliness that it shows.
523
00:45:46,172 --> 00:45:51,234
This is modern life, presented in
all its randomness and disorder.
524
00:45:54,716 --> 00:46:00,355
What is it that makes that art
rather than just a rumpled bed?
525
00:46:00,379 --> 00:46:03,440
Well, the first thing that makes
it art, is because I say that it is.
526
00:46:03,662 --> 00:46:06,440
You say that it is. I say that it is. The
second thing is, the Tate say that it is.
527
00:46:06,464 --> 00:46:12,107
But what do you want the viewer,
the visitor to the gallery, to say?
528
00:46:12,168 --> 00:46:15,586
You presumably don't want him
to say, I think that's beautiful.
529
00:46:15,610 --> 00:46:17,448
No, no one's actually
said that, only me.
530
00:46:17,472 --> 00:46:19,638
Do you think it's beautiful?
Yeah, I do.
531
00:46:19,663 --> 00:46:22,755
I think it's really beautiful, yeah.
Otherwise I wouldn't have shown it.
532
00:46:24,977 --> 00:46:28,274
How can this be a beautiful
work of art if it makes
533
00:46:28,298 --> 00:46:31,682
no attempt to transform
the raw material of an idea?
534
00:46:32,244 --> 00:46:35,265
It is just one sordid
reality among others.
535
00:46:35,866 --> 00:46:37,927
Literally, an unmade bed.
536
00:46:41,689 --> 00:46:44,907
We are back with the question
raised by Duchamp's urinal,
537
00:46:44,931 --> 00:46:46,872
whether anything can be art.
538
00:46:48,714 --> 00:46:52,035
This question occupies
both the would-be innovators
539
00:46:52,176 --> 00:46:55,417
and the traditionalists,
like Alexander Stoddart,
540
00:46:55,718 --> 00:47:00,420
a monumental sculptor whose works
stand in public places around the world
541
00:47:00,562 --> 00:47:03,504
as well as in the Queen's
Gallery at Buckingham Palace.
542
00:47:04,725 --> 00:47:09,409
A defender of conceptual art might
say that an idea can be beautiful.
543
00:47:11,171 --> 00:47:14,733
There's nothing wrong
with conceptual art as such.
544
00:47:14,854 --> 00:47:20,054
Yes, but this is in everybody's
field of endeavour.
545
00:47:20,078 --> 00:47:22,760
The lawyer can come
up with a beautiful idea.
546
00:47:22,801 --> 00:47:27,524
You know, the
statesman, the medic,
547
00:47:27,746 --> 00:47:30,215
let's cure cancer.
Beautiful idea. But he
548
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,147
doesn't say, he's an
artist in the back of that.
549
00:47:33,567 --> 00:47:36,623
Conceptual art of course
is entirely word bound.
550
00:47:36,647 --> 00:47:39,664
It is in fact a kind of
art that's exhausted in
551
00:47:39,688 --> 00:47:43,305
its verbal description.
So you need to just say
552
00:47:43,329 --> 00:47:47,046
half a cow in a tank of
formaldehyde and you've,
553
00:47:47,070 --> 00:47:50,438
you're really all the way there.
The object itself
554
00:47:50,462 --> 00:47:53,787
then can be dumped.
Tracy Emin's bed is a perfect
555
00:47:53,811 --> 00:47:56,872
example of that.
If you walked past a skip...
556
00:47:57,553 --> 00:48:04,316
in some scheme, and you saw that bed lying
there, you would walk on, but of course if
557
00:48:04,340 --> 00:48:09,781
you saw even just the torso of the appalled
Belvedere lying in that skip, you would be
558
00:48:09,805 --> 00:48:12,917
arrested by it and you
may even climb in and
559
00:48:12,941 --> 00:48:15,867
try to retrieve it.
Many students come to
560
00:48:15,891 --> 00:48:19,434
me from sculpture
departments, secretly of course.
561
00:48:19,997 --> 00:48:22,256
Because they don't
want to tell their tutors
562
00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:24,461
that they've come to
truck with the enemy.
563
00:48:25,062 --> 00:48:27,452
And they say, I tried
to make a model of a
564
00:48:27,476 --> 00:48:30,002
figure, and I model
led it in clay, and then
565
00:48:30,026 --> 00:48:35,868
a tutor came up and told me to cut it in
half and dump some diarrhea on top of it.
566
00:48:35,892 --> 00:48:38,093
And that will
make it interesting.
567
00:48:38,456 --> 00:48:42,167
It's what I feel about
the kind of standardised
568
00:48:42,191 --> 00:48:45,615
desecration that passes
for art these days.
569
00:48:45,639 --> 00:48:49,473
It actually is a kind of immorality,
because it is an attempt
570
00:48:49,497 --> 00:48:52,919
to obliterate meaning from
the human form in some way.
571
00:48:52,943 --> 00:48:55,484
Well, it's an attempt to
obliterate knowledge.
572
00:49:02,827 --> 00:49:06,846
The art establishment has turned
away from the old curriculum,
573
00:49:06,870 --> 00:49:10,312
which put beauty and craft
at the top of the agenda.
574
00:49:11,053 --> 00:49:15,672
Those like Alexander Stoddart, who
try to restore the age-old connection
575
00:49:15,696 --> 00:49:20,739
between the beautiful and the sacred,
are seen as old-fashioned and absurd.
576
00:49:32,702 --> 00:49:37,584
The same kind of criticism is aimed
at traditionalists in architecture.
577
00:49:38,905 --> 00:49:44,787
One target is Leon Creer, architect of the
Prince of Wales model town of Poundbury.
578
00:49:49,259 --> 00:49:53,379
Designing modest streets,
laid out in traditional ways,
579
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:56,556
using the well-tried
and much-loved details
580
00:49:56,580 --> 00:49:58,760
that have served us
down the centuries,
581
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:02,121
Leoncreer has created
a genuine settlement.
582
00:50:02,841 --> 00:50:05,501
The proportions are
human proportions.
583
00:50:07,202 --> 00:50:10,102
The details are
restful to the eye.
584
00:50:14,903 --> 00:50:17,763
This is not great or
original architecture,
585
00:50:17,944 --> 00:50:19,244
nor does it try to be.
586
00:50:19,884 --> 00:50:22,725
It is a modest attempt
to get things right
587
00:50:22,985 --> 00:50:26,786
by following patterns and
examples laid down by tradition.
588
00:50:27,486 --> 00:50:32,847
This is not nostalgia, but knowledge
passed on from age to age.
589
00:50:37,248 --> 00:50:41,765
Architecture that doesn't respect
the past is not respecting the present,
590
00:50:41,789 --> 00:50:45,826
because it is not respecting people's
primary need from architecture,
591
00:50:45,850 --> 00:50:48,750
which is to build a
long-standing home.
592
00:50:58,338 --> 00:51:01,332
I have shown some of
the ways in which artists
593
00:51:01,356 --> 00:51:04,503
and architects have
followed the call of beauty.
594
00:51:05,604 --> 00:51:08,606
In doing so, they have
given our world meaning.
595
00:51:12,489 --> 00:51:15,708
The masters of the past
recognized that we have
596
00:51:15,732 --> 00:51:18,773
spiritual needs as well
as animal appetites.
597
00:51:20,986 --> 00:51:23,907
For Plato, beauty
was a path to God,
598
00:51:24,708 --> 00:51:28,310
while thinkers of the
Enlightenment saw art and beauty
599
00:51:28,350 --> 00:51:32,252
as ways in which we save
ourselves from meaningless routines
600
00:51:32,332 --> 00:51:34,413
and rise to a higher level.
601
00:51:37,175 --> 00:51:39,636
But art turned its
back on beauty.
602
00:51:40,276 --> 00:51:43,178
It became a slave to
the consumer culture,
603
00:51:43,698 --> 00:51:46,059
feeding our pleasures
and addictions
604
00:51:46,119 --> 00:51:48,220
and wallowing in self-disgust.
605
00:51:51,697 --> 00:51:54,586
But that, it seems to
me, is the lesson of the
606
00:51:54,610 --> 00:51:57,461
ugliest forms of modern
art and architecture.
607
00:51:58,202 --> 00:52:04,567
They do not show reality, but take revenge
on it, spoiling what might have been a home
608
00:52:04,668 --> 00:52:10,272
and leaving us to wander unconsoled
and alienated in a spiritual desert.
609
00:52:13,537 --> 00:52:17,018
Of course it is true that there
is much in the world today
610
00:52:17,059 --> 00:52:19,259
that distracts and troubles us.
611
00:52:19,720 --> 00:52:22,220
Our lives are full of leftovers.
612
00:52:22,621 --> 00:52:27,402
We battle through noise and
distraction and nothing resolves.
613
00:52:31,084 --> 00:52:35,785
The right response, however,
is not to endorse this alienation.
614
00:52:36,205 --> 00:52:39,086
It is to look for the path
back from the desert.
615
00:52:39,607 --> 00:52:42,718
One that will point us
to a place where the
616
00:52:42,742 --> 00:52:46,090
real and the ideal may
still exist in harmony.
617
00:52:57,615 --> 00:53:01,142
In my own life, I have
found this path more easily
618
00:53:01,166 --> 00:53:04,438
through music than
through any other art form.
619
00:53:07,942 --> 00:53:12,264
Pergolesi was 26 when
he wrote the Stabat Marta.
620
00:53:12,424 --> 00:53:15,062
It describes the grief
of the Holy Virgin
621
00:53:15,086 --> 00:53:17,666
beside the cross
of the dying Christ.
622
00:53:18,707 --> 00:53:23,069
All the suffering of the world is
symbolized in its exquisite lines.
623
00:53:31,247 --> 00:53:33,511
Given that Pergolesi
was suffering from
624
00:53:33,535 --> 00:53:36,109
tuberculosis when he
wrote the Stabat Mater,
625
00:53:36,330 --> 00:53:39,231
he is that son dying
on the cross too.
626
00:53:40,092 --> 00:53:43,813
In fact, he died within a few
months of the work's completion.
627
00:53:45,294 --> 00:53:48,416
This is not a complex or
ambitious piece of music,
628
00:53:48,896 --> 00:53:52,578
simply a heartfelt expression
of the composer's faith.
629
00:53:53,298 --> 00:53:56,696
It shows the way in which
deep and troubling emotions
630
00:53:56,720 --> 00:54:00,162
can achieve unity and
freedom through music.
631
00:54:01,929 --> 00:54:05,030
The voice of Mary is
written for two singers.
632
00:54:05,351 --> 00:54:10,189
The melody rises slowly,
painfully, resolving dissonance
633
00:54:10,213 --> 00:54:13,955
only to be gripped by another
dissonance as the voices clash,
634
00:54:14,335 --> 00:54:17,877
representing the conflict
and sorrow within her.
635
00:54:21,339 --> 00:54:27,299
Why don't I just give you bar 18?
OK. Good idea.
636
00:54:57,136 --> 00:55:01,279
And here we have a very
simple and sacred text.
637
00:55:01,820 --> 00:55:08,244
The mother stands grieving and weeping
at the cross on which her son is hanging.
638
00:55:08,505 --> 00:55:10,082
That's really all that
you have to say.
639
00:55:10,106 --> 00:55:12,931
And a completely unmusical
person would immediately
640
00:55:12,955 --> 00:55:15,530
get the message that
it's a piece of grieving,
641
00:55:15,610 --> 00:55:16,927
wouldn't they? Absolutely.
642
00:55:16,951 --> 00:55:18,952
There could be no
possible doubt about that.
643
00:55:19,133 --> 00:55:23,194
The music takes over the words
and makes them speak to you
644
00:55:23,218 --> 00:55:26,277
in another language,
in your own heart.
645
00:55:26,679 --> 00:55:30,858
Well, it means that today in
our secular world it can delight
646
00:55:30,882 --> 00:55:34,679
and move without people
having to know what it's about.
647
00:55:34,863 --> 00:55:40,986
We learn without the theological apparatus
that there is this thing called suffering,
648
00:55:41,106 --> 00:55:45,227
and that it's the destiny of all of us,
but also is not the end of all of us.
649
00:57:11,716 --> 00:57:16,310
In this film, I have described
beauty as an essential resource.
650
00:57:17,410 --> 00:57:21,103
Through the pursuit of beauty,
we shape the world as a home,
651
00:57:21,216 --> 00:57:24,591
and in doing so, we
both amplify our joys
652
00:57:24,615 --> 00:57:27,716
and find consolation
for our sorrows.
653
00:57:30,377 --> 00:57:34,897
Art and music shine a light
of meaning on ordinary life.
654
00:57:35,037 --> 00:57:39,123
And through them, we are able to
confront the things that trouble us
655
00:57:39,163 --> 00:57:43,337
and to find consolation and
peace in their presence.
656
00:57:46,117 --> 00:57:49,216
This capacity of beauty
to redeem our suffering
657
00:57:49,290 --> 00:57:54,116
is one reason why beauty can be
seen as a substitute for religion.
658
00:57:58,197 --> 00:58:00,576
Why give priority to religion?
659
00:58:00,656 --> 00:58:03,589
Why not say that religion
is a beauty substitute?
660
00:58:04,077 --> 00:58:07,430
Better still, why describe
the two as rivals?
661
00:58:07,603 --> 00:58:11,290
The sacred and the
beautiful stand side by side,
662
00:58:11,457 --> 00:58:14,930
two doors that open
onto a single space.
663
00:58:15,103 --> 00:58:18,669
And in that space,
we find our home.
79848
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