[Book design and cover photograph by Kidist P. Asrat
Dimenstions: 8in x 10in]
Dimenstions: 8in x 10in]
I decided to call my book Reclaiming Beauty, after this blog where I've had a flurry of postings since I started it in February. These blog postings helped me fine-tune my ideas, and helped me to focus specifically on beauty.
I had originally thought to call the book Camera Lucida, but I think that is too obscure a term (it is actually a photography term, depicting the out-door photographic device which soon got replaced by our current "black box" camera).
Then, following C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, I thought to call it Mere Culture, a standard of plain, central culture, to paraphrase Lewis. But a standard of plain, central culture is hard to find these days in our era of multiculturalism, and my task is to find that central culture. But "mere" might be misunderstood to mean "just" or "simply" thus diminishing its importance. Below are brief explanation of Lewis' use of the word:
Sometime in 1943, Lewis began making the words "Mere Christianity" his own. That was in his Introduction to St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, translated from the Greek by his friend Sister Penelope Lawson, CSMV. "The only safety [against the theological errors in recently published books]," wrote Lewis, "is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity (‘mere Christianity’ as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective."Here is another discussion of the term:
As editors of a journal of "Mere Christianity," we are often asked what we mean by “mere Christianity.” We got this phrase, of course, from C. S. Lewis, who picked it up from the Anglican divine Richard Baxter (d. 1691). Another way of saying “mere Christianity” is “what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all,” to use the words of St. Vincent of Lerins (d. 445).Reclaiming Beauty describes the type of activity I'm advocating: to reclaim the beauty that our era is vehemently destroying. I have been advocating this for the many years I've blogged at Camera Lucida and at Our Changing Landscape. In Reclaiming Beauty, I am saying that rather than just an intellectual process, I envision reclaiming beauty to be also an active process, where each reclaimer of beauty participates in bringing back beauty into our world.
The book will be a type of manifesto for concrete references to these basic ideas. The website will be a living manifestation and continuation of the book, with like-minded people participating in the movement for reclaiming beauty.
The book chapters will somewhat follow the guidelines I set for Camera Lucida, with a section on defining beauty, and sections on the various cultural, societal and historical aspects of beauty. There will be a section on "Desecration of Beauty" where I will outline more specifically the factors that are destroying beauty, and our culture. The final chapter will be a guideline for how we can reclaim beauty, and give it back its due importance in our culture.
Some of the chapters are written, and I have copious notes and references that outline my basic ideas. Most of the writings are (and will be) improved and completed versions of my blog posts from Camera Lucida, Our Changing Landscape, and my full-length published and unpublished articles from Kidist P. Asrat Articles. Topics and ideas from this blog Reclaiming Beauty will also be incorporated. This will help me show book editors and publishers that my idea is sound, which I've been developing over a number of years.
Most of the images that head the chapters will be from my collection of photographs and designs. Some of these images can be found at Kidist P. Photographs and Well-Patterned. Others I will choose from my vast collection photographs mostly in negatives and prints. I will select other images from collections of paintings and drawings of the well-known artists whose works I discuss.
The image on the book cover is a photograph I took of the stained glass ceiling in New York's Plaza Hotel.
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Here are the working titles:
Chapter One
An Introduction to Beauty
- Seek and Ye Shall Find
- Beauty, Truth and Goodness
- Synthesis of Beauty
- Beauty in the Worship of God
- Beauty and the Transcendent
- Beauty and Humanity
- Beauty and Femininity
- Beauty and Masculinity
- How to be a Beautiful Movie Star
- Beauty: I will be your mirror
- Rejecting Beauty
- Elimination of Beauty
Chapter Two
Beauty in Art
- Architecture
- Painting
- Drawing and Illustrations
- Film
- Photography
- Dance
- Design and Fashion
- Art Criticism
Chapter Three
Beauty in Language
- Literature
- Poetry
- Writing
- Books
- Blogging
- Humor
Chapter Four
Beauty in Culture and Society
- Religion
- Christianity
- Islam
- Myths and Legends
- History
- Traditions
- Conservatism
- Politics
- Immigration
- Multiculturalism
Chapter Five
Beauty in Nature
Chapter Six
Beauty in Science
Chapter Seven
Desecration of Beauty
Chapter Eight
Reclaiming Beauty
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The article below, The Desecration of Rembrandt's Gentle Men, is a re-write of two blog posts from Camera Lucida: Rembrandt's Gentle Men: Beauty and Humanity, and Zadie Smith's "On Beauty": Lack of Beauty. It will probably go in Chapter Seven's Desecration of Beauty.
Left: Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Syndics of the Draper's Guild
1661
75.4 in x 109.8 in
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Right: Self-portrait
1659
Oil on canvas
33.3 in x 26 in
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
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The Desecration of Rembrandt's Gentle Men
By: Kidist P. Asrat
Rembrandt was commissioned to paint many group portraits of relatively wealthy and influential members of society from the guilds, town councils and other civic institutions of 17th century Holland. His group portrait of the De Staalmeesters, known as Syndics of the Draper's Guild in English, portrays a group of tradesmen reviewing the quality of cloth samples. He shows us more than just a guild meeting.
He has submerged the protagonists with a gentle light and avoids stark contrasts and sharp demarcations, which were common in his earlier paintings. This blending of contrasts makes the men to appear more gentle – they are not tormented by dilemmas of Biblical proportions. They are but wealthy citizens trying to bring about civility and order through their dutiful influence. At the same time, these are men who make difficult and sometimes harsh decisions, and the caution and wisdom in their faces recognizes that they need to always be alert to their surroundings.
Technically, Rembrandt achieves this mixture of gentleness and caution with the natural chiaroscuro provided by the dark clothes and the contrasting white collars. The men's illumined (enlightened, intelligent) faces are lit up by the light reflected off their white collars. The costumes, as well as describing rank and status, become natural props aiding Rembrandt's technique of playing with light and dark contrasts, light and dark moods, light and dark personalities, and other psychological polarities.
Rembrandt is the master of painting technique, above all using light. He has placed muted gold everywhere, from the cloth on the table to the paneling in the back wall. The effect is a glow from undecipherable sources, portraying a subdued presence of wealth, since despite their austere clothing, and probably equally restrained passions, these are men have financial and social security.
Rembrandt's art is also full of movement. The rhythm of the white collars in Syndics of the Draper's Guildtake takes us from one side of the group to the other in gentle curves. Rembrandt wants us to see the men one after the other with this slow sweep of motion, where each man is distinct and individual.
The men appear surprised by an unexpected visitor. They are looking up, or around, at the visitor, and one guild member is standing up to acknowledge (confront?) the visitor. This puts a spontaneous tone to the painting, which a formal sitting couldn't.
Since we cannot see this 'unexpected guest', then could it be us, the viewers? In such a manner, Rembrandt includes us into his painting, and joins us, even several hundred years later, with his gentle men.
Postmodern writer Zadie Smith got accolades of praise after her first book On Beauty hit the shelves in 2005. What struck me most about the book was its inaccuracies, starting with the title. This is evident from the main protagonist, art history professor Howard Belsey, who is writing (or unable to finish writing) a book on Rembrandt called “Against Rembrandt”. A book 'on beauty' whose main protagonist (and mouthpiece) hates Rembrandt!
Ultimately, I realized that Zadie Smith is unable to discuss beauty. Along with a lack of real knowledge on the subject, and on Rembrandt, she has no sensitivity toward beauty. In fact, overall, she is anti-beauty. Just like the anti-Rembrandt Howard.
I think this is the danger of this post-modern world, this multicultural world from which Smith hails, as evidenced in her second novel White Teeth. She personifies the contemporary writer or artist who doesn't want to spend the time doing the serious work, but would rather use an idea, a rebellious treatise against beauty, for example, or the chaotic world of multicultural London in White Teeth, to write rambling, imprecise and incomplete books. But her critics are equally lazy, or they've thrown out whatever standards they have to participate in the anti-beauty and anti-civilization treatises that "artists" and "writers" like Smith are advocating.
But the problem is more serious than a second-rate writer spilling out some angst. It is the sign of our times that people who profess to work against beauty are hailed as our cultural icons. With a careless sweep of the pen (or brush), they discredit centuries of learning and tradition. It takes little energy to destroy, but much energy to build. With one swoop of an explosive, a whole skyscraper can be brought to rubble. But to build that edifice takes years if not decades.
Beauty's progress has not been decades, but several millennia. Its slow evolution, building on the best of its past, has brought us wonders on earth. Within the last one hundred years, this process has had a potent grenade thrown at it, and we are beginning to see the desolate replacements, with the ruins not far behind them.
Smith's new book, NW, as in: "Northwest London, a council-flat heavy area in which Caribbean immigrants have gradually displaced the shanty Irish" is described as:
...a novel that feels unfinished and brandishes its uncertainties. In the essay "That Crafty Feeling," Smith compares the process of tricking herself into writing a novel to erecting scaffolding to construct a building. In NW, it's hard to tell where the scaffolding ends and the finished work begins: Perhaps that is the point (1).No, there is no "perhaps." That is the point.
Smith could have redeemed herself by constructing a precise and artistic Rembrandt-like oeuvre. Instead, what we get from her is a lazy mesh of scrawls, hardly even a sketch. What would Rembrandt, strict and observant, think of the desecration of his paintings by second-rate writer Zadie Smith?
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1. Cooke, Rachel. 2012, August 26. NW by Zadie Smith – review. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/26/nw-zadie-smith-review
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat