This is a branch of philosophy dealing with the notion that there are objective truths defining beauty and what the old critics called the sublime. Another aspect of aesthetics is that it maintains a universal, holistic principle that is common to all people. Undoubted, this is not completely true, as aesthetics, or sense of beauty can be dependent on culture, religion, and even social standing.

The saving grace of this science is that it recognizes itself not to be a precise science. It carefully labels its theories as principles not laws. and these cannot be as strong as verifiable scientific laws.

Some of the very early studies of aesthetics were conceputalized by William Hogarth, in "The Analysis of Beauty." It theorized six principles which independently affect beauty. Without going into detail, I will list the principles here: 1. fitness, 2. variety, 3. regularity, 4. simplicity, 5. intricacy, and 6. Quantitiy. These essentially follow our present day principles of art and design.

I mentioned aesthetics because it is such an important issue for teaching art. Should professors discourage certain compositions, like the dreaded centralized composition, complete with unicorn or sword wielding barbarian in the center? I consider these targets and could best serve at the local rifle club. Before I retired from teaching, I fought tooth and nail with my students, who forever challenged me that I squelched their creativity with my old fashioned rules. I could only repond with that academia required me to teach them good principles of design, and not necessarily that breaking these principles was bad. Afterall, how could I dogmatically claim that drawing unicorns was bad, if professional artists, more famous than I'll ever be, make their living from purposely ignoring aesthetics.

It can be broadly assumed that the majority of any particular culture consider what is visually good. They intuitively choose not to place windows near top corners of a wall, nor do they hang pictures near the floor. These constraints certainly have a functional element. Pictures are best viewed from eye level. However, even if a room was occupied by very short people, it is very doubtful that any aesthestically minded short person would hang pictures near the lower third of a normally sized wall. On the other hand, in rooms with very tall ceilings, such as buildings, pictures are commonly hung very low when compared to the total hieght of a very large room. It becomes quite apparent that functionality is not only at play, but what philosophers call our aesthetic sense. Most humans of the Western culture like their spaces to be divided proportionally. The Greeks held to the notion of three special components of beauty: symmetry, proportion, and harmony. This triplet of ideas helped to shape their architecture, their sculptures, and how they envisioned the features of their gods. In the philosophy of Aristotle, the golden mean was considered a universal standard, by which the best and perfect position was determined between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. The golden ration was a proportion defined by the number Phi ( = 1.618033988749895. In other words, A is to B as B is to C.This occurs only where A is 1.618 ... times B and B is 1.618 ... times C.

Critics have soon come to realize that these universal ideals will ultimately be challenged by contemporary artists. Their aesthetics are often an antithesis to the rules, blatantly counter to any notions of beauty or order. At least, I am assuming a trend. This is not to say all artists hold to the newest rebellion. The rebellion in Postmodern trends is the subject of a long awaited book of which I've labored the past 20 years.

On a somewhat tangent course, let me direct your attention to another subject which I plan to explore in the coming months. I'd like to feature artists who show promise in the arena of contemporary printmaking. My first review is to bridge connections between postmodern printmakers, who enjoy borrowing from ancient cultures. My first artist is Ralph Slatton. Slatton's early work is symbolically reminiscent of the Kponungo, or Firespitter Mask, attributed to the Senufo peoples of Africa. I make reference to the visual strength and proportions, and not necessarily to the functionality of the piece. Ralph Slatton held a student workstudy postion with the University of Iowa Museum of Art in the late 80's, which permitted him close proximity to the Senufo artifacts. This certainly influenced his graduate work at the University of Iowa. Please read more of the comparisons between Slatton's prints and the Senufo mask. (please see naviagation bar under "Reviews.")