T h e C r e a t i o n o f Ar t

Hisham M Nazer

Art is the recreation of the real in the unreal manner. Exact representation of something is
impossible, and the human urge to make this impossible possible, even with the full
consciousness of its being unreal, is the cause of Art.
The more an artist brings perfection to his art, the more unreal it becomes, because it turns out at
the same time to be so real to the senses, and so unreal to the intellect. So, the more reality the
senses of the artist perceive and the more he gets convinced that he's investing it realistically, the
less real it becomes to the onlooker because he (the onlooker) has learnt it through his intellect
that what he sees is a duplicate copy- an unreal reality, to produce which the artist has copied so
ingenuinely a reality which has not been realized exactly, because it is simply 'impossible', and an
Art becomes an Art, when it is understood more through intellect and less through senses, more to
say, when it is perceived, not when it is being produced. Art is the impossibility of exactness,
and the onlooker's consciousness of it. This amuses the spectator, because the relation between
the impossibility of exact mimesis and the possibility of the depiction marvels the seer, and he
fails to conceive this gap between the two. With his ignorance he stands startled before a work of
art and this startling trance we call - the 'aesthetic pleasure', because the quest towards the
unknown is always pleasurable, and what we don't see, is always aesthetically wonderful! Need
to quote Keats here - 'melodies are sweet but those unheard melodies are sweeter' (Ode to Grecian
Urn)
Abstract art reminds the onlooker that it's unreal, and this cohesive correspondence creates the
aesthetic atmosphere. Here works the reverse form of what I've discussed in the Realistic Art.
Here there is no exact mimesis of the 'external world' rather of the internal world and the abstract
forms of material existence. The painter looks inside, or tries to find out the abstract
representations of reality. So here works double representation, like representation of the
representation. In this case, the consciousness of the 'unreal' is intensified. The painter uses his
brush to create something in the image of 'abstract nothing' that represents the 'material thing'. He
takes two major realities, one the material and the other formal, and blends it. Moreover, he
meditates on the possible forms (Plato's forms) but again representing exactly the forms here is
impossible. So it is always the impossibility the works at the background, but in the case of
Abstract Art, it is the 'impossible blend' that makes it an art, and an aesthetic creation. Here works
an interesting thing. First, the painter sees a matter, and then meditates its abstract form and tries
to represent it through colours. Secondly, the onlooker does the exact opposite. In this case he
first sees the form and then tries to find out what is that matter it is the form of. So, an abstract art
also becomes aesthetic because here also the onlooker is set onto a quest - the quest of seeing the
unseen.
In this genre of Art, the artist takes the matereal world as the subject matter of his art, and
represents through this realistic depiction something higher and beyond. Here, a painter sees the
Aristotelian metaphysics dancing before his eyes. Aristotle asserts that matter and from co-exist.
The painter in this kind of art sees the both, and through presenting the matter represents the
form, that is to say, by presenting the symbol, he depicts the thing symbolized. This kind of
Art is less appreciated than the Abstract Art and more appreciated than the Materialistic Art by
any art connoisseur, because here the involvement of the intellect of the onlooker is less than
Abstract Art, but more than Materialistic Art. The other name of this genre is impressionism.