Art is not something I generally have much time to think about, but recently I had the pleasure of listening to, and participating in a faculty discussion on the fine arts and their purpose. The occasion for the discussion was a wonderful presentation by our assistant principal on the BCSI curricular essay written on the fine arts and their place in a liberal education. The conversation was lively and touched on numerous aspects of the arts, how to teach them, and how they ought to be understood in the context of a classical, liberal education. By far the most debated point in the discussion was what the purpose of art is though, and the debate was invigorating to hear and witness.
For the sake of brevity, my distillation of the positions on each side of this debate is as follows. One side asserted that art should “always elevate” and should never be confused or conflated with mere expression or creations which are common, every day, or even vulgar. The other side countered, arguing that expression of true feeling, instantiating an idea or a thought in visual form, or capturing the essence of a thing (regardless of its value) through art was just as valid as art that elevates the mind or soul and draws the thoughts of the viewer upward.
In the course of the discussion, I offered a comment in an attempt to bridge the gap between the two sides and it had a moderate effect, but my mind continued to ponder the two positions for hours after the fact. The interesting, and somewhat confounding, fact of the matter was that I found myself agreeing with both sides to some degree or another and I began to wonder where these two conceptions originated. It was not the first time I had heard these two views expressed, but something about the way they were put in juxtaposition with one another in that discussion struck me in a way that I could no shake, even weeks later. My ruminations on this subject have produced the following attempt to explain these two positions, their origins, and what they mean for how we humans understand art.
The man who taught me philosophy spoke about human beings as pilgrims in this world. We are wayfarers and wanderers passing through this life only briefly, caught “between two abysses”, as Alexis De Tocqueville says. We wander as we wonder, my great teacher would say, so our wandering is not aimless, but a search for meaning, for purpose. We cannot help feeling as though we are somehow lost and in need of finding home again, so we look for signposts- something to give us direction or to move us in a way that brings us closer to the truth about ourselves. This is what art offers to us, the wondering wanderers. Art moves us mysteriously; it conveys something true about ourselves or this world to our souls and speaks to us ineffably. The effect of art on us may be felt in one of two ways- to accentuate our feeling of homelessness in this world or to ground us more deeply in it, to make us feel at home.
The effect of art is similar to the act of reading or doing philosophy. St. Augustine and C.S. Lewis, for instance, argue that our feelings of alienation and homelessness in this world should point us toward the next world, in which we can truly, and rightly, feel at home. Marx, on the other hand, is intent on dismissing our feelings of alienation as mere products of historical development and urging us towards a materialism which would, in theory, satisfy our longings and quell our restlessness here in this world. The answer to which of these philosophic views, as well as which understanding of art is right and good for us as human beings lies somewhere between the spiritual and materialist poles of Augustine and Marx.
To spend our lives ignoring the reality of this world and the goodness that can be experienced in it (trying and full of strife as it is), would not be good, nor would it satisfy us. But to live entirely as if this world is the end and dismiss the longings of our souls for something beyond material existence will not resolve the questions in our hearts either.
It may be that we are destined for a world beyond this one, as Augustine says, and if that is the case then it is appropriate that art should take us out of ourselves and our daily, mundane routines to remind us of that truth. We should lift our eyes and allow our souls to stretch towards the heavens as we take in the beauty of an elevating piece of artistic work. However, it is also true, as Marx points out, that we live in a material world and, for better or worse, we are stuck making the best of it. Additionally, though we may believe in another world, the conviction of its actual existence depends upon faith, so there really is no guarantee. Thus, art should move us to a level of comfort in this world and to a feeling of being at home here, if only temporarily. In so doing, we overcome our nagging sense of alienation and dread, so we can be content and at peace while we live.
The truth about ourselves is that we are neither gods nor beasts, we are in between and so we are stuck with our wandering and our wondering. Never fully at home in the world, but not capable of living divorced from the material world. To spend our lives ignoring the reality of this world and the goodness that can be experienced in it (trying and full of strife as it is), would not be good, nor would it satisfy us. But to live entirely as if this world is the end and dismiss the longings of our souls for something beyond material existence will not resolve the questions in our hearts either. So, as in everything, we should be open to the truth wherever it presents itself and engage with art in a way that acknowledges both sides of our human experience. Doubtless we will all experience times when we feel more like a wonderer, searching for meaning and longing for something beyond this world. At other times, we will be the wanderer, stuck in this material world, reckoning with a disorienting feeling of lostness, and trying to make the best of life while we have it. Whichever side of the divide we fall on, there is always good reason to be grateful for the gift of art.
