The Importance Of Art In Art

Art is a freedom of expression and through history has often been at the forefront of controversial movements and pushing the boundaries of societal rules. Does art need to be considered and judged through not just an aesthetic lens, but also a moral one? Should we, as Plato suggested, supervise and control the worlds artists and prevent art from celebrating the immoral? These questions are often posed in the world of philosophy and the arts with varying attitudes through time. One of the most important things to remember is that morality is not necessarily the same around the world. The scandalous and immoral are not objective and although many art pieces praise ideas that would fall under these labels, the morality of subject should not devalue

Art that shows things in a disgusting light or celebrates things that are offensive are not automatically immoral. People feel disgust at moral transgressions, however, also at many other things that are not considered immoral (Caruso). Some immoral actions will not invoke disgust. Offence often can be caused by “violations of moral, religious, or political norms; general nudity; and fear, resentment, humiliation or anger” (Caruso). The audience is offended because they believe that something should not be done, because it is immoral, and the artwork does it (Caruso). However, offence is not necessarily an end all in determining if something is immoral, if someone reads in a paper about a robbery they will not necessarily be offended, perhaps upset or angry, but not personally offended, even though this is an immoral act. For example, the painting Olympia, by Edouard Manet. In this work the nude woman’s, presumably a prostitute, defiant expression and casual sexuality were extremely controversial when first shown in the mid 1800s, however today we do not find it so. What is controversial and immoral is not an objective truth, but there are certainly art pieces that will celebrate and explore the