ART AS TRUTH

The central theme of this entry is one of my basic leitmotifs about the truth of all creation. It goes without saying that this entry comes in tandem with its predecessor Art As Being Rather Than Becoming, published on my blog on February 13^th, 2012.

Art is truth, as all creation that stays true to itself is true objectively. As Aristotle says in The Nicomachean Ethics, vi, “All art consists in bringing something into existence.” I disagree with the totality of Aristotle’s definition, virtually equating art with procreation (I do not consider the latter an act of “artistic creation,” or else we would lose the specific meaning of art as opposed to physical creation of anything), but the truth of Aristotle’s wisdom is that all art must be true by his definition, as everything in existence cannot be denied its objective reality, which in a limited sense, as I have repeatedly indicated elsewhere, is a credible definition of truth.

Another witness for the defense of art as truth is Dante, who in Inferno, xi, says this:

“Art imitates nature as well as it can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of grandchild of God.” Considering the obvious logical parallel: God → Nature ≡ Artist → Art, we see that by the same token as God creates Truth in Nature, the Artist, in his limited human way, creates Truth in Art.

Ergo, Art is Truth.

(To be followed by the entry Art As Luxury.)