Volume 1, 2018
Aesthetics and Philosophies of Art
Quynh Nguyen
Pages 223-228
On the Beautiful and the Creative of Commonplace
The aesthetic or experience of the beautiful, coming from our everyday taste, does not capture the meaning of thing-in-itself and, essentially, it cannot be independent from social, economic, cultural, educational and political factors. However, out of such a paradox we realize the exigency of liberating ourselves for our creative and individual pursuit. In this paper I will argue that our experience of the beautiful deserves its ideological right against the dominion or hegemony of the ruling power. Furthermore, I will briefly discuss Marx’s aesthetic theory that nurtures ‘revenge’ due to ignorance and tyranny. I will turn to the concept of beauty initiated by the Neomarxists. I will also agree with Buber’s ideologically individual taste that could reveal something creatively never existed before. This allows me to investigate the ontology of creative technique and the transfiguration of the common objects from the experiences of Chardin, Duchamp and the pop artists. As such, our experience of the beautiful has reality, but no category. Finally, inclusively for this report only, I will support the idea of “the creative without creation” held by Benjamin’s aesthetic of aura - whether it is absurd or not - we can preserve what we believe to be true.