Beauty - Beyond the Beholder's Eye

As a seventeen-year-old architecture student grappling with Picasso’s Guernica, a 500-word critique felt more like a prison sentence than an academic exercise. The subsequent assignments for the compulsory art appreciation course only deepened my scepticism. Confronted with a barrage of works labelled "art", I found myself questioning the very essence of the term. Was it merely a subjective tag, arbitrarily bestowed upon anything from a Pollock’s drip to a Warhol’s soup can?

Image (left) Guernica (Pablo Picasso) | Image (right top) (Jackson Pollack) | Image (right bottom) Campbell Soup (Andy Warhol)

What constitutes beauty? Is it an inherent quality of objects, or does it reside solely in the beholder's perception? Are there criteria or patterns that determine individuals’ responses? From the ancient Greeks, who sought mathematical perfection in their art and architecture, to contemporary scientists exploring the neurological basis of aesthetic experience, thinkers have long pondered the nature of beauty.

We have been conditioned to believe that beauty is an elusive beast, a subjective phantom, waltzing whimsically beyond the grasp of reason. Yet, this notion is a beguiling oversimplification.

For ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, beauty is a quality of an object. there was objective criteria for explaining what is beautiful. Plato believed that beauty is a quality of an object and that there is one true “form” or essence of the beautiful that explains why individual things are beautiful. The beautiful itself has to do with harmony, proportion, and balance. Augustine further argued that objects were delightful because of their inherent beauty, rather than beauty being a product of human delight.

While personal taste undeniably shapes our aesthetic preferences, beauty transcends individual perception, existing as an objective truth to be discovered through knowledge and experience.

Just as the serendipitous fall of an apple ignited Newton's quest for the laws of gravity, our pursuit of beauty has been largely governed by the pull of subjective opinion. However, beneath the surface of personal preference lies a structured framework, a set of principles as concrete, if not as fully articulated, as the laws of physics.

The Mathematics of Beauty

Beauty is inherently tied to order, proportion, and measurable patterns. The Perfect balance of these elements created the Golden Mean, everything from the human form to the cosmos exhibits underlying mathematical structures that contribute to our perception of aesthetic appeal. Beauty is achieved through imitation of nature, without any additions, but a cognizance of details and of their interlinking to form a factual relationship.

Parthenon, Athens

The Parthenon, a majestic testament to human ingenuity, stands as a living embodiment of beauty's mathematical underpinnings. Its grandeur is not merely a fortuitous outcome but a calculated orchestration of geometric precision. Every dimension, from the spacing of columns to the height of the pediment, adheres to a strict numerical order. Yet, this adherence to rule is not cold or sterile; it gives rise to a sense of inevitability, a perfect balance that is both intellectually satisfying and emotionally resonant.

Even those unfamiliar with the intricacies of its mathematical underpinnings are captivated by its grandeur.

It is as if our minds are inherently attuned to these mathematical harmonies, allowing us to appreciate beauty intuitively, without conscious analysis - a proof of the indissoluble link between reason and beauty.

Beauty has rules, and the rules have to be learned... But then, is beauty guaranteed?

Not necessarily. While these elements are essential, they are not sufficient. True beauty arises when every component seamlessly contributes to a unified whole, creating an outcome so inevitable and natural that any alternative feels incongruous. It is this sense of inevitability that triggers a universal, visceral response —an experience so unintentional that it seems extremely natural and at the same time, extremely artful in its naturalness, be objectively beautiful—even if no one is around to experience them. (The Grand Canyon would be beautiful regardless of whether anyone was there to see it)

The challenge of achieving such cohesion has inadvertently fostered the notion of beauty as a subjective and elusive quality. When confronted with a building that fails to inspire, it's often easier to attribute the shortcoming to personal taste rather than to identify the specific shortcomings in its design. However, this oversimplification obscures the complex interplay of factors that contribute to aesthetic success.

From a personal standpoint, differentiating between subjective preference and objective artistic merit can be a challenging endeavour. What I may have dismissed as distasteful art during my adolescent years might, upon deeper understanding, reveal itself as a masterpiece.  The personal taste, often influenced by limited knowledge and experience, can obscure the inherent qualities of a work. It's akin to a palate untrained to appreciate the subtleties of a gourmet meal.

In essence, Beauty exists in two forms: an objective quality inherent in an object and a subjective experience evoked by that object. The common ground between these perspectives is the aesthetic experience itself. While the objective sense of beauty refers to intrinsic properties within the object that elicit this response, the subjective sense focuses solely on the experience without necessarily considering its source.

It’s entirely possible to dislike something that others consider beautiful, just as one might find personal enjoyment in something that isn’t conventionally appealing. Preferences are deeply subjective and shaped by individual experiences and tastes. However, this subjectivity doesn’t diminish the inherent beauty—or lack thereof. True appreciation of beauty goes beyond personal bias and recognizes that beauty exists independently of our likes and dislikes. It’s important to acknowledge that our preferences don’t negate the intrinsic qualities that define an object’s beauty. Instead, they highlight the diverse ways in which beauty can be perceived and appreciated.

Beauty is a tangible entity, much like gravity or the speed of light. It's a matter of discovery, not opinion. While our interpretation may vary, the beauty itself remains constant, a universal language waiting to be deciphered.