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As the protagonist of one of my favorite films ("Merlin") states: "Beauty is always just an illusion." Indeed, beauty is a phenomenon born in our minds through the senses. Going further, one could say, "Beauty is a state of mind," or, put differently, a work of imagination. However, John Keats famously declared, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," thus challenging Morgana's assertion from Merlin that beauty is an illusion. Beauty is real and authentic; it is a true image of reality.
Thus, beauty constitutes the essence of the world on one hand, and on the other, it is a product of the mind or imagination. How does beauty arise? An artist creates a work of art, and critics and audiences determine whether it is beautiful or not. Does beauty depend on public opinion? After all, people have diverse tastes. Could it be that beauty is a matter of taste? Marcel Duchamp demonstrated this by exhibiting a urinal in a museum, showing that anything can be considered art, thereby transforming contemporary thinking about art. This raises the question: what possesses true aesthetic value, and what is merely a fictional or artificial "work of art"?
In my humble opinion, there is no point in categorizing art into movements and styles but rather in acknowledging that something is either beautiful or not, letting time prove who is right regarding beauty. Some works are fleeting trends, while others are timeless, like the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, or Van Gogh. Beauty, as a state of mind, might be inner harmony derived from classical music or truth that transforms individual awareness—an idea that changes one's life, a scientific discovery, or an artist's inspiration in creating a masterpiece. It might also be love for another person or liberation from limitations (freedom).
As we can see, many phenomena can be associated with beauty. Beauty is an attribute of reality, without which our world would be "hell," for living in a world devoid of beauty, goodness, and truth would be unbearable. Beauty not only allows us to exist in the world but also makes us better. One does not need to be an artist to love beauty, just as one does not need to be a philosopher to love wisdom. This is part of human nature. A person not only perceives or creates beauty but can also be beautiful themselves.
The essence of beauty is thus "all-encompassing," to borrow a term from Karl Jaspers' philosophy. Humanity, therefore, is both the creator and recipient of beauty, as beauty is like the air we breathe—something we take for granted daily but feel profoundly when it is absent. If God exists, I believe He is an artist painting universes with His brush, while human artists strive to express their understanding and perception of the world. Beauty, in turn, is the result of these endeavors. Beauty is a work of imagination and reason, endowing objects of aesthetic value with meaning, significance, and context. Beauty is an end in itself, an autotelic value.
A world without beauty would not only be unbearable but also impossible, as chaos and disharmony would replace it. Beauty is one of the most fundamental values in art, which, by its nature, seeks to achieve beauty and truth. Truth in art is as essential as beauty, though it is less commonly associated with it. Art should be not only aesthetic but also authentic. Beauty is both transcendent and immanent. It is transcendent because it surpasses the mundane, the temporal, and the contingent. At the same time, it is immanent because it belongs to the very essence (nature) of being.
Beauty is the foundation of existence because the harmony of the universe enables its order and reveals its nature. The universe is an unexplored source of beauty that exists "in itself" and "for itself," as Sartre might put it. Thus, beauty is both a state of mind and the essence of reality. An example of this phenomenon can be found in the ontology of the work of art by Polish phenomenologist Roman Ingarden.
To conclude: Beauty constitutes the essence of the universe as a creation of the divine and of humanity as its creator and discoverer. Beauty is not subjective; it exists objectively in the harmony of the universe, human civilizations, and the natural environment. "Beauty is truth," as John Keats stated, because it represents the authentic work of the artist and expresses the truth about the universe.