UNETHICALNESS IN ART

in the field of Art, there are two ways the unethicalness can show... the first is by having a work passed off as if it were a work of Art - either deliberately as in the case of 'abstract art', or thru misunderstanding of the nature of what Art is, as in the case of photography... the second is by presenting in a work of Art a false view of existance...

a work of Art, as Rand pointed out, provides a visualization for contemplating being in one's own ideal world... since a person lives by altering his/her physical background - the given world he/she is in - to serve that person's purpose, that person must first define and then create that person's own values... but to best do so, that person need a visualization of those values - the experience of sensing being in a universe in which those values have been successfully achieved...Art, in effect, is a 'metaphysical mirror of the person"s soul,' as Rand wrote, 'an expression of the sense of life'... properly, she then went on to state, 'what should be reflected is in the nature of a salute'... if it does not show this, the work may be a work of Art, but it may be unethical in that it shows a fraudulant view of existance...

how, then, does one go about this visualization? Rand said that the closer an artist comes to a CONCEPTUAL method of functioning, visually, the greater the work... this is because it is thru concepts that a person functions in the world - and it is thru the visualization of concepts that a person transmits intelligibility... this is the crux of defining what is or is not a work of Art... to be a work of Art, it MUST BE INTELLIGIBLE - and intelligible means being a re-presentational work... if it is not intelligible, if one cannot know what it is that is being presented, it ceases to be a work of Art... that is why, for instance, so-called 'abstract art' or 'non-representational art' is properly NOT Art... at best it may be a glorification of aspects of the decorative arts, a subset of aesthetics embodied in the Crafts, as a sort of simulated texture - but NOT Art...