"Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of beauty" by David Hickey

In his essay, "Enter the Dragon," David Hickey declares the importance of beauty within artwork. Before discussing beauty, its definition must first be given. Hickey distinguishes between beauty and the beautiful. The beautiful is a culmination of aesthetics hailed by society as visually appealing. In contrast, beauty is whatever involuntarily catches our attention and excites our senses. Even the most grotesque pieces of art can therefore contain beauty. According to Hickey, beauty is a central issue of our generation, for beauty in artwork has slowly waned within the latter half of the twentieth century. I agree that beauty is important, because beauty holds power. As Hickey states, beauty within art will cause the viewer to take time to discern the meaning of the artwork. Thus, artwork can hold powerful political and ethical agendas and use beauty to push these agendas onto the viewers. Artwork without beauty "begs the question of art's efficacy and dooms itself to inconsequence!" However, Hickey argues, the modern institution distrusts images that are efficacious by virtue of their beauty alone. Modern artists strive to achieve a plain honesty free from efficacy and beauty. Such artists argue that beauty is idolatrous, a form of advertising that is sinful and lacking in truth. Hickey argues history's greatest art has always inevitably contained both idolatry and advertisement, and that "plain honesty" does not exist because "the truth is never plain nor appearances sincere." Hickey furthers his argument by presenting ""Madonna of the Rosary" by Caravaggio. He implies that Caravaggio’s painting would not have been so spectacular, nor survived so many generations, had it not had a political agenda that was successfully achieved.

           Though I agree that idolatry and advertisement are both forms of art, I do not believe the truth can never be simple. Hickey believes that an image has no reason to exist and be beautiful unless said image has the intention of reconstruction the viewer's beliefs. However, I feel that certain artwork has been created with the sole intention of creating visual pleasure. Not all art need contain political motives and the intention to create new beliefs. Furthermore, the history of art and beauty does not run parallel with the history of winners. Many, such as African-American and female artists, who created artworks promoting racial and gender equality, never lived to see their goals achieved but their artwork has flourished.

I differ from Hickey in my opinion of honesty within art, but I agree with the critic's belief in the powerful role of beauty. For example, Robert Mapplethorpe's pornographic photographs of men having sex are profoundly controversial not for their homosexual nature but for their beauty. The men within the photographs are depicted in a radiant, appealing light, implying that their actions are not sinful but rather positive. Beauty is certainly the issue of our generation, and will continue to be for generations to come.

-Tina