Aesthetics and appreciation of ugly: interwoven variations of perception

What is beauty and what is ugliness? Why do those artworks that are criticized as “ugly to an extreme” can resonate with the entire era? In perception and artistic expression, aesthetics and appreciation of uglyare not mutually exclusive but rather closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing. The interweaving of beauty and ugliness is the true appearance of the real world.
Aesthetic appreciation originated from the ancient Greek contemplation of “beauty”, and Kant and Hegel’s theories constructed core elements based on harmony, order, and elegance. Appreciation of ugly is a bold rebellion and expansion of traditional aesthetics. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche pointed out that “ugliness is closely related to the essence of life”, and Rosenkranz more systematically expounded the independent value of ugliness, liberating it from the subordinate position of beauty, making people realize that those deformed, absurd, and disharmonious things also contain the power to stimulate profound thinking.

From the classical period to the Renaissance, pursuit of perfection was the goal, and in the paintings of Raphael, the Virgin Mary radiated a holy radiance. At this time, ugliness was regarded as a flaw. In the 19th century, Goya’s black paintings exposed human nature and criticized reality. In the modern and postmodernist periods, Duchamp’s “Fountain” and Munch’s “The Scream” made criticism of authority and reflection on social alienation a sharp weapon. In contemporary times, Basquiat integrated street graffiti and African culture into his creations, breaking the boundaries between high art and popular aesthetics with chaotic yet highly tense brushstrokes, and directly addressing social issues such as racial discrimination and identity dilemmas through his works, achieving a new creation and expression.

Aesthetic and appreciation of ugly are both mutually exclusive and symbiotic. Chinese literati appreciate stones with the principle of “wrinkled, cracked, slender, and transparent”, considering imperfection as beauty, and Japanese Wabi-Sabi aesthetics advocate simplicity and imperfection, both breaking the boundaries between beauty and ugliness. The standards of cultural beauty and ugliness vary, but they all demonstrate a diverse aesthetic ecology where beauty and ugliness coexist. The interweaving of aesthetic and appreciation of uglyare precisely our dual aspects of facing the real world, allowing us to embrace this world of coexisting beauty and ugliness, complexity, and mystery with a more diverse and inclusive perspective.