Beau

Notes on Beauty

I was at a seminar in the Islamic Museum of Arts today, that, amongst other things, touched base on the notion of beauty. After a mind numbing few hours with an international audience I asked the speakers, both from Spain and Oman respectively, How would you justify beauty as divine, if such beauty is so ornate that it ignites backlash, for not being of simplicity and modesty?

The gist of what I received was - what matters in essence is the intention of that created beauty. If the beauty was meant to enlighten, to nourish in good, then it is truly beautiful and divine. If it simply is physically gorgeous and magnetic, but ignites a feeling of contempt and sorrow, then it is just, beauty by name and idea. What we consider as beauty could perhaps be something profound, that resonates a surge of harmonious feeling within us. I digress.

Speaking of resonance, this, haunts me on a whole other level: World Press Photo Awards