0:00:00.504,0:00:03.836 (soft orchestral music) 0:00:20.143,0:00:23.143 - At any time between 1750 and 1930, 0:00:24.182,0:00:25.904 if you had asked educated people 0:00:25.904,0:00:30.064 to describe the aim of[br]poetry, art, or music, 0:00:30.064,0:00:32.363 they would've replied, beauty. 0:00:32.363,0:00:35.696 (soft orchestral music) 0:00:38.522,0:00:40.721 And if you had asked[br]for the point of that, 0:00:40.721,0:00:43.237 you would've learned[br]that beauty is a value 0:00:43.237,0:00:46.266 as important as truth and goodness. 0:00:46.266,0:00:49.599 (soft orchestral music) 0:00:53.119,0:00:57.286 Then in the 20th century,[br]beauty stopped being important. 0:00:59.074,0:01:01.573 Art increasingly aimed to disturb 0:01:01.573,0:01:03.491 and to break moral taboos. 0:01:03.491,0:01:06.037 It was not beauty, but originality, 0:01:06.037,0:01:09.408 however achieved and[br]at whatever moral cost 0:01:09.408,0:01:11.059 that won the prizes. 0:01:11.059,0:01:13.976 (soft opera music) 0:01:16.543,0:01:19.107 Not only has art made a cult of ugliness, 0:01:19.107,0:01:23.107 architecture too has[br]become soulless and sterile 0:01:24.163,0:01:26.261 and is not just our physical surroundings 0:01:26.261,0:01:28.094 that have become ugly. 0:01:31.406,0:01:33.784 Our language, our music, and our manners 0:01:33.784,0:01:37.920 are increasingly raucous, self-centered, 0:01:37.920,0:01:40.627 and offensive, as if beauty and good taste 0:01:40.627,0:01:43.294 have no real place in our lives. 0:01:46.622,0:01:49.620 One word is written large[br]on all these ugly things, 0:01:49.620,0:01:51.539 and that word is me. 0:01:51.539,0:01:54.622 My profits, my desires, my pleasures, 0:01:55.955,0:01:58.461 and art has nothing to[br]say in response to this 0:01:58.461,0:02:00.378 except yeah, go for it. 0:02:03.918,0:02:06.259 I think we are losing beauty, 0:02:06.259,0:02:08.717 and there is a danger that with it, 0:02:08.717,0:02:11.337 we will lose the meaning of life. 0:02:11.337,0:02:14.670 (soft orchestral music) 0:02:23.167,0:02:26.667 (lively orchestral music) 0:02:28.208,0:02:32.470 I'm Roger Scruton, philosopher and writer. 0:02:32.470,0:02:34.887 My trade is to ask questions. 0:02:36.987,0:02:38.528 During the last few years, 0:02:38.528,0:02:42.028 I have been asking questions about beauty. 0:02:44.171,0:02:46.587 Beauty has been central[br]to our civilization 0:02:46.587,0:02:48.254 for over 2000 years. 0:02:49.568,0:02:51.530 From its beginnings in ancient Greece, 0:02:51.530,0:02:54.011 philosophy has reflected[br]on the place of beauty 0:02:54.011,0:02:58.284 in art, poetry, music,[br]architecture, and everyday life. 0:02:58.284,0:03:01.784 (lively orchestral music) 0:03:04.946,0:03:06.407 Philosophers have argued that through 0:03:06.407,0:03:07.723 the pursuit of beauty, 0:03:07.723,0:03:10.870 we shape the world as a home. 0:03:10.870,0:03:12.971 We also come to understand our own nature 0:03:12.971,0:03:14.638 as spiritual beings. 0:03:17.562,0:03:20.731 But our world has turned[br]its back on beauty, 0:03:20.731,0:03:22.427 and because of that, we find ourselves 0:03:22.427,0:03:25.594 surrounded by ugliness and alienation. 0:03:28.368,0:03:31.291 I want to persuade you[br]that beauty matters, 0:03:31.291,0:03:33.611 that it is not just a subjective thing, 0:03:33.611,0:03:36.694 but a universal need of human beings. 0:03:38.822,0:03:40.272 If we ignore this need, 0:03:40.272,0:03:43.627 we find ourselves in a spiritual desert. 0:03:43.627,0:03:46.587 I want to show you the[br]path out of that desert, 0:03:46.587,0:03:49.451 and it is a path that leads to home. 0:03:49.451,0:03:52.951 (lively orchestral music) 0:03:55.051,0:03:58.134 (lively piano music) 0:04:08.406,0:04:10.390 The great artists of the past 0:04:10.390,0:04:14.557 were aware that human life is[br]full of chaos and suffering, 0:04:16.243,0:04:18.406 but they had a remedy of this, 0:04:18.406,0:04:21.526 and the name of this remedy was beauty. 0:04:21.526,0:04:24.609 (lively piano music) 0:04:28.806,0:04:32.246 The beautiful work of art[br]brings consolation in sorrow 0:04:32.246,0:04:34.163 and affirmation in joy. 0:04:36.848,0:04:40.086 It shows human life to be worthwhile. 0:04:40.086,0:04:43.169 (lively piano music) 0:04:48.161,0:04:50.161 Many modern artists have become weary 0:04:50.161,0:04:51.828 of this sacred task. 0:04:53.383,0:04:55.488 The randomness of modern life, they think, 0:04:55.488,0:04:58.507 could not be redeemed by art. 0:04:58.507,0:05:01.174 Instead, it should be displayed. 0:05:03.622,0:05:05.859 The pattern was set nearly a century ago 0:05:05.859,0:05:09.058 by the French artist Marcel Duchamp 0:05:09.058,0:05:12.150 who signed a urinal with[br]a fictitious signature, 0:05:12.150,0:05:15.650 R. Mutt, and entered it for an exhibition. 0:05:18.086,0:05:19.527 His gesture was satirical 0:05:19.527,0:05:21.870 designed to mock the world of art 0:05:21.870,0:05:24.787 and the snobberies that go with it. 0:05:26.663,0:05:29.539 But it has been[br]interpreted in another way, 0:05:29.539,0:05:32.706 that showing that anything can be art. 0:05:34.066,0:05:36.845 Like a light going on and off. 0:05:36.845,0:05:39.345 (light music) 0:05:40.703,0:05:42.286 A can of excrement, 0:05:43.687,0:05:45.770 or even a pile of bricks. 0:05:48.572,0:05:51.442 No longer does art have a sacred status. 0:05:51.442,0:05:54.082 No longer does it raise[br]us to a higher moral 0:05:54.082,0:05:56.141 or spiritual plane. 0:05:56.141,0:05:59.303 It is just one human gesture among others, 0:05:59.303,0:06:02.886 no more meaningful than[br]a laugh or a shout. 0:06:04.279,0:06:06.409 - I think they're making fun of us. 0:06:06.409,0:06:08.242 It's a pile of bricks. 0:06:13.872,0:06:16.272 - Art once made a cult of beauty. 0:06:16.272,0:06:19.522 Now we have a cult of ugliness instead. 0:06:20.990,0:06:22.485 Since the world is disturbing, 0:06:22.485,0:06:25.445 art should be disturbing too. 0:06:25.445,0:06:27.022 Those who look for beauty in art 0:06:27.022,0:06:30.689 are just out of touch[br]with modern realities. 0:06:32.267,0:06:35.406 Sometimes, the intention is to shock us, 0:06:35.406,0:06:37.650 but what is shocking first time round 0:06:37.650,0:06:40.650 is boring and vacuous when repeated. 0:06:43.441,0:06:46.185 This makes art into an elaborate joke, 0:06:46.185,0:06:49.307 though one that by now[br]has ceased to be funny. 0:06:49.307,0:06:51.547 Yet the critics go on endorsing it, 0:06:51.547,0:06:55.380 afraid to say that the[br]emperor has no clothes. 0:06:58.507,0:07:01.408 Creative art is not[br]achieved just like that, 0:07:01.408,0:07:03.491 simply by having an idea. 0:07:04.884,0:07:08.005 Of course, ideas can be[br]interesting and amusing, 0:07:08.005,0:07:10.464 but this doesn't justify the appropriation 0:07:10.464,0:07:11.881 of the label art. 0:07:14.005,0:07:17.223 If a work of art is[br]nothing more than an idea, 0:07:17.223,0:07:18.805 anybody can be an artist, 0:07:18.805,0:07:21.728 and any object can be a work of art. 0:07:21.728,0:07:23.488 There is no longer any need 0:07:23.488,0:07:26.064 for skill, taste, or creativity. 0:07:26.064,0:07:30.147 (mischievous instrumental music) 0:07:31.807,0:07:33.925 - What you are also attempting to do, 0:07:33.925,0:07:37.305 as I understand it, was devalue the art 0:07:37.305,0:07:39.525 as an object simply by saying, 0:07:39.525,0:07:41.445 if I say it's a work of art, 0:07:41.445,0:07:43.547 that makes it a work of art. 0:07:43.547,0:07:45.406 - Yeah, but even the word work of art, 0:07:45.406,0:07:48.973 you see, is not so important for me. 0:07:48.973,0:07:50.653 I don't care about the word art 0:07:50.653,0:07:52.403 because it's been so, 0:07:54.269,0:07:57.225 you know, discredited, in such a word. 0:07:57.225,0:07:59.328 - [Joan] But you in fact[br]contributed to the discrediting, 0:07:59.328,0:08:00.756 didn't you, quite deliberately? 0:08:00.756,0:08:02.554 - Deliberately yes. 0:08:02.554,0:08:05.735 So I very want to get rid of it 0:08:05.735,0:08:08.212 because in a way, many people today 0:08:08.212,0:08:10.629 have done away with religion. 0:08:11.833,0:08:16.234 - People accepted Duchamp[br]at his own valuation. 0:08:16.234,0:08:18.452 I think he did not get rid of art. 0:08:18.452,0:08:20.952 He just got rid of creativity. 0:08:23.438,0:08:25.417 However, Duchamp's works[br]are still influencing 0:08:25.417,0:08:27.417 the course of art today. 0:08:29.737,0:08:31.220 Artist Michael Craig-Martin, 0:08:31.220,0:08:34.138 who taught several of[br]the young British artists 0:08:34.138,0:08:37.034 whose work dominates the art world, 0:08:37.034,0:08:40.457 followed Duchamp's example[br]with his own seminal work 0:08:40.457,0:08:42.515 called An Oak Tree. 0:08:42.515,0:08:45.994 This consists of a glass[br]of water on a shelf 0:08:45.994,0:08:49.411 with a text explaining it is an oak tree. 0:08:52.815,0:08:54.954 When I first entered St. Peter's 0:08:54.954,0:08:57.937 and confronted Michelangelo's Pieta, 0:08:57.937,0:09:00.436 for me, that was a[br]transporting experience. 0:09:00.436,0:09:02.196 My life was changed by this. 0:09:02.196,0:09:05.187 Do you think that someone[br]can have the same experience 0:09:05.187,0:09:07.898 with Duchamp's urinal, or perhaps, 0:09:07.898,0:09:11.855 with your oak tree, which is[br]after all a similar thing? 0:09:11.855,0:09:14.874 - I know that when I was a teenager, 0:09:14.874,0:09:17.374 and I first came upon Duchamp, 0:09:18.218,0:09:20.938 and I first came upon the ready mades, 0:09:20.938,0:09:24.105 I was absolutely stunned in amazement. 0:09:25.736,0:09:26.874 I don't think people are overwhelmed 0:09:26.874,0:09:29.295 by a sense of beauty[br]when they see the urinal. 0:09:29.295,0:09:31.234 It's not meant to be beautiful, 0:09:31.234,0:09:33.831 but that doesn't mean that[br]there isn't something about it 0:09:33.831,0:09:36.012 that doesn't captivate the imagination, 0:09:36.012,0:09:38.495 and I think captivate the imagination 0:09:38.495,0:09:41.495 is the key to what an artwork seeks to do. 0:09:41.495,0:09:44.031 Duchamp felt that art had become 0:09:44.031,0:09:46.650 too interested in techniques, 0:09:46.650,0:09:48.650 too interested in optics. 0:09:48.650,0:09:50.010 He felt that it had become 0:09:50.010,0:09:52.634 intellectually and morally corrupt. 0:09:52.634,0:09:54.810 Now his reason for making an artwork 0:09:54.810,0:09:57.412 that didn't fit the[br]system was not cynicism. 0:09:57.412,0:10:01.652 It was in order to say[br]I'm trying to make an art 0:10:01.652,0:10:04.069 that denies all of the things 0:10:06.009,0:10:08.394 that people say art should have 0:10:08.394,0:10:11.514 because I'm trying to say[br]the central question of art 0:10:11.514,0:10:13.311 rests somewhere else. 0:10:13.311,0:10:17.052 - I take that point that[br]things had to change. 0:10:17.052,0:10:19.172 Duchamp was trying to change them, 0:10:19.172,0:10:22.351 but what was he trying to change them to? 0:10:22.351,0:10:25.916 - Well, he could never,[br]in his wildest dreams, 0:10:25.916,0:10:27.892 have imagined what would[br]happen would happen, 0:10:27.892,0:10:30.730 or that he himself, I'm[br]sure he had no idea, 0:10:30.730,0:10:35.530 how central the thing was[br]that he had stumbled upon, 0:10:35.530,0:10:36.688 that he had come upon, 0:10:36.688,0:10:38.991 essentially that a work of art 0:10:38.991,0:10:42.692 is a work of art because[br]we think of it as such. 0:10:42.692,0:10:44.286 I also think it's important to say 0:10:44.286,0:10:46.351 that the notion of[br]beauty has been extended 0:10:46.351,0:10:49.213 to include things that would[br]not have been thought of. 0:10:49.213,0:10:50.355 That's part of the artist's function, 0:10:50.355,0:10:53.411 is to make beautify, make one[br]see something as beautiful, 0:10:53.411,0:10:54.973 something that nobody[br]thought was beautiful 0:10:54.973,0:10:56.152 up until now. 0:10:56.152,0:10:57.715 - Right, like a can of shit. 0:10:57.715,0:11:00.515 - Well, I'm not sure that it's beautiful, 0:11:00.515,0:11:02.195 but if you take an example 0:11:02.195,0:11:04.111 that's not trying to be beautiful, 0:11:04.111,0:11:06.634 if you take say Jeff Koons, 0:11:06.634,0:11:08.355 Jeff Koons has some things 0:11:08.355,0:11:11.605 which are truly astoundingly beautiful. 0:11:12.860,0:11:14.430 - [Roger] It's like so much kitsch to me, 0:11:14.430,0:11:16.435 but kitsch with sugar on. 0:11:16.435,0:11:18.333 - [Michael] This is the[br]subject matter of his work, 0:11:18.333,0:11:20.392 not the substance of his work. 0:11:20.392,0:11:22.291 - What is the use of this art? 0:11:22.291,0:11:24.355 What does it help people to do? 0:11:24.355,0:11:28.115 - I think it hopefully allows people 0:11:28.115,0:11:31.532 to see the world in which they are living 0:11:33.793,0:11:37.293 in a way that gives it[br]more meaning to them, 0:11:37.293,0:11:40.194 and it's not the world of an ideal world 0:11:40.194,0:11:41.971 of some other world, some better place, 0:11:41.971,0:11:44.396 but of the here and now, 0:11:44.396,0:11:45.933 of the world that they're in, 0:11:45.933,0:11:48.850 and are trying to live more at ease 0:11:49.731,0:11:52.632 within the world that they're given. 0:11:52.632,0:11:56.632 (discordant instrumental music) 0:12:00.984,0:12:04.686 - So the art of today shows[br]us the world as it is. 0:12:04.686,0:12:07.544 The here and now and[br]all its imperfections. 0:12:07.544,0:12:09.961 But is the result really art? 0:12:13.064,0:12:14.862 Surely something is not a work of art 0:12:14.862,0:12:17.806 because it offers a slice of reality, 0:12:17.806,0:12:21.139 ugliness included, and calls itself art. 0:12:25.140,0:12:29.307 ("Cello Suite Number One" by Bach) 0:12:35.278,0:12:37.537 Art needs creativity, 0:12:37.537,0:12:40.659 and creativity is about sharing. 0:12:40.659,0:12:42.595 It is a call to others to see the world 0:12:42.595,0:12:44.428 as the artist sees it. 0:12:47.544,0:12:48.814 That is why we find beauty 0:12:48.814,0:12:51.458 in the naive art of children. 0:12:51.458,0:12:53.016 Children are not giving us ideas 0:12:53.016,0:12:55.108 in the place of creative images, 0:12:55.108,0:12:58.776 nor are they wallowing in ugliness. 0:12:58.776,0:13:01.555 They are trying to affirm[br]the world as they see it 0:13:01.555,0:13:03.888 and to share what they feel. 0:13:06.814,0:13:09.973 Something of the child's[br]pure delight in creation 0:13:09.973,0:13:12.890 survives in every true work of art. 0:13:14.310,0:13:16.375 But creativity is not enough, 0:13:16.375,0:13:17.930 and the skill of the true artist 0:13:17.930,0:13:21.678 is to show the real in[br]the light of the ideal, 0:13:21.678,0:13:23.595 and so, transfigure it. 0:13:27.496,0:13:29.059 This is what Michelangelo achieves 0:13:29.059,0:13:31.726 in his great portrayal of David. 0:13:34.961,0:13:38.398 But when we encounter a[br]concrete cast of the David, 0:13:38.398,0:13:41.096 perhaps it's part of[br]some garden arrangement, 0:13:41.096,0:13:43.160 it is not beautiful at all, 0:13:43.160,0:13:47.176 for it lacks the essential[br]ingredient of creativity. 0:13:47.176,0:13:50.676 (upbeat electronic music) 0:13:56.408,0:13:59.908 (soft instrumental music) 0:14:05.281,0:14:08.942 Discussions of the kind I have[br]been having are dangerous. 0:14:08.942,0:14:10.540 In our democratic culture, 0:14:10.540,0:14:12.401 people often think it is threatening 0:14:12.401,0:14:15.068 to judge another person's taste. 0:14:17.297,0:14:19.654 Some are even offended by the suggestion 0:14:19.654,0:14:23.196 that there is a difference[br]between good and bad taste, 0:14:23.196,0:14:25.116 or that it matters what you look at 0:14:25.116,0:14:26.866 or read or listen to. 0:14:28.716,0:14:30.897 But this doesn't help anybody. 0:14:30.897,0:14:32.118 There are standards of beauty 0:14:32.118,0:14:35.111 which have a firm base in human nature, 0:14:35.111,0:14:36.372 and we need to look for them 0:14:36.372,0:14:38.872 and build them into our lives. 0:14:44.452,0:14:46.976 Maybe people have lost[br]their faith in beauty 0:14:46.976,0:14:49.857 because they have lost[br]their belief in ideals. 0:14:49.857,0:14:51.756 All there is, they are tempted to think, 0:14:51.756,0:14:54.134 is the world of appetite. 0:14:54.134,0:14:58.534 There are no values other[br]than utilitarian ones. 0:14:58.534,0:15:01.570 Something has a value if it has a use, 0:15:01.570,0:15:03.987 and what's the use of beauty? 0:15:07.014,0:15:11.318 All art is absolutely[br]useless wrote Oscar Wilde, 0:15:11.318,0:15:14.211 who intended his remark as praise. 0:15:14.211,0:15:18.378 For Wilde, beauty of a value[br]higher than usefulness. 0:15:19.393,0:15:21.161 People need useless things 0:15:21.161,0:15:23.297 just as much as, even more than 0:15:23.297,0:15:25.977 they need things with a use. 0:15:25.977,0:15:27.094 Just think of it. 0:15:27.094,0:15:31.254 What is the use of love,[br]of friendship, of worship? 0:15:31.254,0:15:32.587 None whatsoever. 0:15:33.574,0:15:35.991 And the same goes for beauty. 0:15:39.046,0:15:42.431 Our consumer society[br]puts usefulness first, 0:15:42.431,0:15:46.014 and beauty is no better[br]than a side effect. 0:15:47.374,0:15:50.739 Since art is useless, it[br]doesn't matter what you read, 0:15:50.739,0:15:54.174 what you look at, what you listen to. 0:15:54.174,0:15:56.148 ♫ I see you baby 0:15:56.148,0:15:58.017 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:15:58.017,0:15:59.540 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:15:59.540,0:16:00.543 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:16:00.543,0:16:02.703 We are besieged by message on every side, 0:16:02.703,0:16:05.044 titillated, tempted by appetite, 0:16:05.044,0:16:08.463 never at rest, and that is one reason 0:16:08.463,0:16:11.098 why beauty is disappearing from our world. 0:16:11.098,0:16:12.521 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:16:12.521,0:16:14.063 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:16:14.063,0:16:16.724 Getting and spending, wrote Wordsworth, 0:16:16.724,0:16:18.497 we lay waste our powers. 0:16:18.497,0:16:19.961 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:16:19.961,0:16:21.663 ♫ Shaking that ass 0:16:21.663,0:16:23.001 In our culture today, 0:16:23.001,0:16:26.260 the advert is more important[br]than the work of art, 0:16:26.260,0:16:28.772 and artworks often try[br]to capture our attention 0:16:28.772,0:16:33.071 as adverts do, by being[br]brash or outrageous, 0:16:33.071,0:16:37.238 like this bejeweled platinum[br]skull by Damien Hirst. 0:16:38.268,0:16:40.388 Lie adverts, today's works of art 0:16:40.388,0:16:44.809 aim to create a brand, even if[br]they have no product to sell, 0:16:44.809,0:16:46.372 except themselves. 0:16:46.372,0:16:49.289 (crowd chattering) 0:16:54.489,0:16:57.989 (somber orchestral music) 0:17:08.335,0:17:12.502 (building collapsing and shattering) 0:17:21.272,0:17:23.714 Beauty is assailed from two directions, 0:17:23.714,0:17:26.393 by the cult of ugliness in the arts 0:17:26.393,0:17:29.993 and by the cult of[br]utility in everyday life. 0:17:29.993,0:17:32.057 These two cults come together 0:17:32.057,0:17:35.396 in the world of modern architecture. 0:17:35.396,0:17:38.676 (somber orchestral music) 0:17:38.676,0:17:40.377 At the turn of the 20th century, 0:17:40.377,0:17:45.038 architects, like artists, began[br]to be impatient with beauty 0:17:45.038,0:17:47.705 and to put utility in its place. 0:17:50.980,0:17:53.152 The American architect, Louis Sullivan, 0:17:53.152,0:17:55.940 expressed the credo of the modernists 0:17:55.940,0:17:58.798 when he said that form follows function. 0:17:58.798,0:18:01.198 In other words, stop thinking about 0:18:01.198,0:18:02.756 the way a building looks 0:18:02.756,0:18:05.839 and think instead about what it does. 0:18:08.836,0:18:10.622 Sullivan's doctrine has been used 0:18:10.622,0:18:13.540 to justify the greatest[br]crime against beauty 0:18:13.540,0:18:15.576 that the world has yet seen, 0:18:15.576,0:18:18.596 and that is the crime[br]of modern architecture. 0:18:18.596,0:18:22.179 (tense instrumental music) 0:18:36.713,0:18:38.473 I grew up near Reading, 0:18:38.473,0:18:41.092 which was a charming Victorian town 0:18:41.092,0:18:43.854 with terraced streets and Gothic churches 0:18:43.854,0:18:46.608 crowned by elegant public buildings 0:18:46.608,0:18:48.718 and smart hotels. 0:18:48.718,0:18:51.991 But in the 1960s, things began to change. 0:18:51.991,0:18:54.713 Here, in the center, the[br]homely streets were demolished 0:18:54.713,0:18:59.592 to make way for office blocks,[br]a bus station, and car parks, 0:18:59.592,0:19:03.257 all designed without[br]consideration for beauty, 0:19:03.257,0:19:05.652 and the result proves as clearly as can be 0:19:05.652,0:19:08.190 that if you consider only utility, 0:19:08.190,0:19:11.690 the things you build will soon be useless. 0:19:12.718,0:19:13.849 This building is boarded up 0:19:13.849,0:19:16.169 because nobody has a use for it. 0:19:16.169,0:19:17.351 Nobody has a use for it 0:19:17.351,0:19:19.278 because nobody wants to be in it. 0:19:19.278,0:19:20.473 Nobody wants to be in it 0:19:20.473,0:19:22.692 because the thing is so damned ugly. 0:19:22.692,0:19:26.359 (somber instrumental music) 0:19:34.890,0:19:39.057 Everywhere you turn, there[br]is ugliness and mutilation. 0:19:39.969,0:19:43.588 The offices and bus station[br]have been abandoned. 0:19:43.588,0:19:45.089 The only things at home here 0:19:45.089,0:19:48.891 are the pigeons fouling the pavements. 0:19:48.891,0:19:52.235 Everything has been vandalized. 0:19:52.235,0:19:54.390 But we shouldn't blame the vandals. 0:19:54.390,0:19:56.487 This place was built by vandals, 0:19:56.487,0:19:58.171 and those who added the graffiti 0:19:58.171,0:20:00.171 merely finished the job. 0:20:05.089,0:20:08.651 Most of our towns and[br]cities have areas like this 0:20:08.651,0:20:11.649 in which buildings erected[br]merely for their utility 0:20:11.649,0:20:14.731 have rapidly become useless, 0:20:14.731,0:20:18.564 not that architects[br]learned from the disaster. 0:20:19.830,0:20:22.251 (explosion) 0:20:22.251,0:20:26.251 (glass crashing and shattering) 0:20:34.198,0:20:35.579 When the public began to react 0:20:35.579,0:20:39.141 against the brutal concrete[br]style of the 1960s, 0:20:39.141,0:20:40.699 architects simply replaced it 0:20:40.699,0:20:44.272 with a new kind of junk, glass walls 0:20:44.272,0:20:47.280 hung on steel frames with absurd details 0:20:47.280,0:20:49.419 that don't match. 0:20:49.419,0:20:52.342 Result is another kind of failure to fit. 0:20:52.342,0:20:54.838 It is there simply to be demolished. 0:20:54.838,0:20:57.338 (funky music) 0:21:02.796,0:21:05.296 (light music) 0:21:11.079,0:21:13.143 In the midst of all this desolation, 0:21:13.143,0:21:17.981 we find a fragment of the[br]streets that were destroyed. 0:21:17.981,0:21:20.064 Once a forge, now a cafe. 0:21:20.940,0:21:23.042 People come here from all around 0:21:23.042,0:21:26.337 because it is the last[br]bit of life remaining, 0:21:26.337,0:21:29.294 and the life comes from the building. 0:21:29.294,0:21:31.794 (light music) 0:21:41.135,0:21:43.178 This returns me to Oscar Wilde's remark 0:21:43.178,0:21:46.378 that all art is absolutely useless. 0:21:46.378,0:21:49.545 Put usefulness first, and you lose it. 0:21:50.456,0:21:52.911 Put beauty first, and what you do 0:21:52.911,0:21:54.828 will be useful forever. 0:21:55.775,0:21:58.255 It turns out that nothing is more useful 0:21:58.255,0:21:59.716 than the useless. 0:21:59.716,0:22:02.216 (light music) 0:22:05.236,0:22:07.641 We see this in traditional architecture 0:22:07.641,0:22:10.676 with its decorative details. 0:22:10.676,0:22:13.956 Ornaments liberate us from[br]the tyranny of the useful 0:22:13.956,0:22:17.081 and satisfy our need for harmony. 0:22:17.081,0:22:20.516 In a strange way, they[br]make us feel at home. 0:22:20.516,0:22:24.255 They remind us that we have[br]more than practical needs. 0:22:24.255,0:22:26.858 We are not just governed[br]by animal appetites 0:22:26.858,0:22:28.942 like eating and sleeping. 0:22:28.942,0:22:31.935 We have spiritual and moral needs too, 0:22:31.935,0:22:35.396 and if those needs go[br]unsatisfied, so do we. 0:22:35.396,0:22:38.729 (soft orchestral music) 0:22:57.027,0:22:58.109 We all know what it is like 0:22:58.109,0:22:59.806 even in the everyday world 0:22:59.806,0:23:03.267 suddenly to be transported[br]by the things we see 0:23:03.267,0:23:05.710 from the ordinary world of our appetites 0:23:05.710,0:23:09.293 to the illuminated[br]sphere of contemplation. 0:23:12.206,0:23:14.968 A flash of sunlight, a remembered melody, 0:23:14.968,0:23:17.827 the face of someone[br]loved, these dawn on us 0:23:17.827,0:23:19.987 in the most distracted moments, 0:23:19.987,0:23:22.926 and suddenly, life is worthwhile. 0:23:22.926,0:23:26.259 (soft orchestral music) 0:23:30.910,0:23:32.590 These are timeless moments 0:23:32.590,0:23:36.757 in which we feel the presence[br]of another and higher world. 0:23:40.670,0:23:42.766 From the beginning of[br]Western civilization, 0:23:42.766,0:23:46.406 poets and philosophers have[br]seen the experience of beauty 0:23:46.406,0:23:48.739 as calling us to the divine. 0:23:52.062,0:23:55.987 Plato, writing in Athens[br]in the fourth century BC, 0:23:55.987,0:23:58.051 argued that beauty is the sign 0:23:58.051,0:24:00.384 of another and higher order. 0:24:03.966,0:24:07.163 Beholding beauty with the[br]eye of the mind, he wrote, 0:24:07.163,0:24:09.992 you will be able to nourish true virtue 0:24:09.992,0:24:12.409 and become the friend of God. 0:24:16.408,0:24:18.526 Plato was an idealist. 0:24:18.526,0:24:21.469 He believed that human beings are pilgrims 0:24:21.469,0:24:23.806 and passengers in this world 0:24:23.806,0:24:26.568 while always aspiring beyond it 0:24:26.568,0:24:30.735 to the eternal realm where[br]we will be united with God. 0:24:36.443,0:24:39.928 God exists in a transcendental world 0:24:39.928,0:24:41.726 to which we humans aspire, 0:24:41.726,0:24:44.559 but which we cannot know directly. 0:24:47.550,0:24:50.990 But one way of glimpsing that[br]heavenly sphere here below 0:24:50.990,0:24:54.157 is through the experience with beauty. 0:24:58.188,0:25:00.188 This leads to a paradox. 0:25:01.225,0:25:03.763 For Plato, beauty was first and foremost 0:25:03.763,0:25:07.966 the beauty of the human[br]face and the human form. 0:25:07.966,0:25:09.384 The love of beauty, he thought, 0:25:09.384,0:25:14.046 originates in eros, a[br]passion that all of us feel. 0:25:14.046,0:25:17.385 We would call this passion romantic love. 0:25:17.385,0:25:20.285 For Plato, eros was a cosmic force 0:25:20.285,0:25:24.452 which flows through us in[br]the form of sexual desire. 0:25:28.185,0:25:31.329 But if human beauty arouses desire, 0:25:31.329,0:25:34.824 how can it have anything[br]to do with the divine? 0:25:34.824,0:25:39.283 Desire is for the individual[br]living in this world. 0:25:39.283,0:25:41.283 It is an urgent passion. 0:25:43.641,0:25:47.022 Sexual desire presents us with a choice, 0:25:47.022,0:25:50.022 adoration or appetite, love or lust. 0:25:53.225,0:25:57.142 Lust is about taking,[br]but love is about giving. 0:26:02.003,0:26:05.545 Lust brings ugliness, the[br]ugliness of human relations 0:26:05.545,0:26:07.401 in which one person treats another 0:26:07.401,0:26:09.651 as a disposable instrument. 0:26:13.241,0:26:15.065 To reach the source of beauty, 0:26:15.065,0:26:16.862 we must overcome lust. 0:26:16.862,0:26:20.612 (playful instrumental music) 0:26:23.414,0:26:27.081 (somber instrumental music) 0:26:34.025,0:26:37.113 This longing without lust[br]is what we mean today 0:26:37.113,0:26:38.530 by platonic love. 0:26:41.529,0:26:44.307 When we find beauty in a youthful person, 0:26:44.307,0:26:46.787 it is because we glimpse[br]the light of eternity 0:26:46.787,0:26:48.691 shining in those features 0:26:48.691,0:26:51.614 from a heavenly source beyond this world. 0:26:51.614,0:26:55.114 (soft instrumental music) 0:26:57.571,0:26:59.705 The beautiful human form is an invitation 0:26:59.705,0:27:03.455 to unite with it[br]spiritually, not physically. 0:27:05.993,0:27:08.073 Our feeling for beauty is, therefore, 0:27:08.073,0:27:11.592 a religious and not a sensual emotion. 0:27:11.592,0:27:15.092 (soft instrumental music) 0:27:19.230,0:27:22.110 This theory of Plato's is astonishing. 0:27:22.110,0:27:25.491 Beauty, he thought, is a[br]visitor from another world. 0:27:25.491,0:27:28.190 We can do nothing with it save contemplate 0:27:28.190,0:27:30.057 its pure radiance. 0:27:30.057,0:27:33.132 Anything else pollutes and desecrates it, 0:27:33.132,0:27:35.148 destroying its sacred aura. 0:27:35.148,0:27:38.648 (soft instrumental music) 0:27:44.182,0:27:48.266 Plato's theory may seem[br]quaint to people today, 0:27:48.266,0:27:53.174 but it is one of the most[br]influential theories in history. 0:27:53.174,0:27:54.689 Throughout our civilization, 0:27:54.689,0:27:58.838 poets, storytellers, painters,[br]priests, and philosophers 0:27:58.838,0:28:03.005 have been inspired by Plato's[br]views on sex and love. 0:28:08.977,0:28:11.243 If we are to just look[br]in the poetry corner 0:28:11.243,0:28:13.356 as to then books by people[br]who have tried to express 0:28:13.356,0:28:15.798 the Platonic vision of the erotic, 0:28:15.798,0:28:17.715 let's see who there is. 0:28:19.926,0:28:24.262 Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur,[br]John Donne Here and There, 0:28:24.262,0:28:27.635 Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer, 0:28:27.635,0:28:29.340 especially The Knight's Tale, 0:28:29.340,0:28:31.664 The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript, 0:28:31.664,0:28:34.951 incredible expressions of[br]the Platonic love here, 0:28:34.951,0:28:37.596 Cavalcanti, who is the master of Dante, 0:28:37.596,0:28:40.609 and Dante himself definitely, 0:28:40.609,0:28:44.177 oh Spencer of course, The Fairy Queen, 0:28:44.177,0:28:47.662 Dafydd ap Gwilym, to take[br]the Welsh version of it all, 0:28:47.662,0:28:51.572 The Women Troubadours, Christina Rosetti. 0:28:51.572,0:28:55.217 I don't believe it more[br]Victorian about it. 0:28:55.217,0:28:56.717 Ah, so it goes on. 0:29:00.176,0:29:03.676 (soft instrumental music) 0:29:09.617,0:29:12.530 The early Renaissance[br]painter Sandro Botticelli 0:29:12.530,0:29:16.110 illustrated the theory[br]in this famous painting, 0:29:16.110,0:29:20.277 which shows the birth of[br]Venus, goddess of erotic love. 0:29:21.675,0:29:25.993 Venus looks on the world[br]from a place beyond desire. 0:29:25.993,0:29:29.494 She is inviting us to[br]transcend our earthly appetites 0:29:29.494,0:29:33.661 and unite with her through[br]the pure love of beauty. 0:29:36.577,0:29:39.953 Botticelli's model was Simonetta Vespucci. 0:29:39.953,0:29:42.913 Botticelli loved her until[br]the end of her short life 0:29:42.913,0:29:46.433 and actually asked to[br]be buried at her feet. 0:29:46.433,0:29:49.435 She represented to him Plato's ideal. 0:29:49.435,0:29:54.051 This was beauty to be[br]contemplated but not possessed. 0:29:54.051,0:29:57.251 (soft instrumental music) 0:29:57.251,0:29:59.297 Plato and Botticelli are telling us 0:29:59.297,0:30:03.195 that real beauty lies[br]beyond sexual desire, 0:30:03.195,0:30:07.217 so we can find beauty not only[br]in a desirable young person 0:30:07.217,0:30:11.974 but also in a face full[br]of age, grief, and wisdom, 0:30:11.974,0:30:13.595 such as Rembrandt painted. 0:30:13.595,0:30:17.095 (soft instrumental music) 0:30:21.195,0:30:23.174 The beauty of a face is a symbol 0:30:23.174,0:30:26.113 of the life expressed in it. 0:30:26.113,0:30:28.475 It is flesh become spirit, 0:30:28.475,0:30:30.395 and in fixing our eyes on it, 0:30:30.395,0:30:33.978 we seem to see right[br]through into the soul. 0:30:36.513,0:30:38.635 Painters like Rembrandt are important 0:30:38.635,0:30:40.832 for showing us that beauty is an ordinary, 0:30:40.832,0:30:43.035 everyday kind of thing. 0:30:43.035,0:30:45.035 It lies all around us. 0:30:45.035,0:30:47.073 We need only the eyes to see it 0:30:47.073,0:30:49.195 and the hearts to feel. 0:30:49.195,0:30:51.228 The most ordinary event can be made 0:30:51.228,0:30:53.762 into something beautiful by a painter 0:30:53.762,0:30:56.622 who can see into the heart of things. 0:30:56.622,0:31:00.122 (soft instrumental music) 0:31:09.650,0:31:12.332 So long as the belief[br]in a transcendental god 0:31:12.332,0:31:15.954 was firmly anchored in the[br]heart of our civilization, 0:31:15.954,0:31:19.186 artists and philosophers[br]continued to think of beauty 0:31:19.186,0:31:20.436 in Plato's way. 0:31:22.110,0:31:24.391 Beauty was the revelation of God 0:31:24.391,0:31:26.058 in the here and now. 0:31:29.314,0:31:31.031 This religious approach to the beautiful 0:31:31.031,0:31:32.864 lasted for 2000 years. 0:31:34.631,0:31:37.730 But in the 17th century,[br]the scientific revolution 0:31:37.730,0:31:40.311 began to sow the seeds of doubt. 0:31:40.311,0:31:43.747 (soft instrumental music) 0:31:43.747,0:31:46.572 The medieval church[br]accepted the ancient view 0:31:46.572,0:31:50.739 that the Earth lies at the[br]center of the universe. 0:31:52.551,0:31:55.772 Then, Copernicus and Galileo[br]proved that the Earth 0:31:55.772,0:31:59.855 circles the sun, and Newton[br]completed their work, 0:32:00.770,0:32:03.267 describing a clockwork universe 0:32:03.267,0:32:05.751 in which each moment follows mechanically 0:32:05.751,0:32:07.431 from the one before. 0:32:07.431,0:32:10.931 (soft instrumental music) 0:32:15.027,0:32:17.425 This was the Enlightenment vision 0:32:17.425,0:32:18.950 which described our world 0:32:18.950,0:32:20.685 as though there was no place in it 0:32:20.685,0:32:22.352 for gods and spirits, 0:32:22.352,0:32:25.403 no place for values and ideals, 0:32:25.403,0:32:29.632 no place for anything save[br]the regular clockwork movement 0:32:29.632,0:32:32.064 which turned the moon around the Earth 0:32:32.064,0:32:34.230 and the Earth around the sun 0:32:34.230,0:32:36.789 for no purpose whatsoever. 0:32:36.789,0:32:40.289 (soft instrumental music) 0:32:42.388,0:32:44.368 At the heart of Newton's universe 0:32:44.368,0:32:48.491 is a God shaped hole, a spiritual vacuum, 0:32:48.491,0:32:50.470 and one philosopher in particular 0:32:50.470,0:32:52.656 set out to fill this vacuum. 0:32:52.656,0:32:55.413 That is the Third Earl of Shaftesbury. 0:32:55.413,0:32:59.164 (light instrumental music) 0:32:59.164,0:33:02.752 Science explains things,[br]but, thought Shaftesbury, 0:33:02.752,0:33:07.128 its account of the world[br]is in one way incomplete. 0:33:07.128,0:33:10.395 We can see the world[br]from another perspective, 0:33:10.395,0:33:13.808 not seeking to use it or explain it, 0:33:13.808,0:33:16.891 but simply contemplating its appearance 0:33:16.891,0:33:20.048 as we might contemplate[br]a landscape or a flower. 0:33:20.048,0:33:24.326 (light instrumental music) 0:33:24.326,0:33:27.008 The idea that the world is[br]intrinsically meaningful, 0:33:27.008,0:33:31.087 full of an enchantment, that[br]it needs no religious doctrine 0:33:31.087,0:33:35.028 to perceive answered to[br]a deep emotional need. 0:33:35.028,0:33:37.595 Beauty was not planted[br]in the world by God, 0:33:37.595,0:33:39.967 but discovered there by people. 0:33:39.967,0:33:43.467 (soft instrumental music) 0:33:56.263,0:34:00.247 Shaftesbury's idea[br]encouraged the cult of beauty 0:34:00.247,0:34:03.025 which raised the appreciation[br]of art and nature 0:34:03.025,0:34:07.881 to the place once occupied[br]by the worship of God. 0:34:07.881,0:34:10.342 Beauty was to fill the God shaped hole 0:34:10.342,0:34:11.643 made by science. 0:34:11.643,0:34:15.143 (soft instrumental music) 0:34:16.184,0:34:18.659 Artists were no longer illustrators 0:34:18.659,0:34:22.744 of the sacred stories who worked[br]as servants of the church. 0:34:22.744,0:34:25.672 They were discovering the[br]stories for themselves 0:34:25.672,0:34:28.882 by interpreting the secrets of nature. 0:34:28.882,0:34:31.262 Landscapes which used[br]to be mere backgrounds 0:34:31.262,0:34:34.561 to holy images became foregrounds 0:34:34.561,0:34:38.351 with the human figure[br]often lost in their folds. 0:34:38.351,0:34:41.851 (soft instrumental music) 0:34:43.370,0:34:45.951 But for Shaftesbury, it[br]does not need a work of art 0:34:45.951,0:34:48.992 to present us with the[br]beauty of the world. 0:34:48.992,0:34:51.071 We simply need to look on things 0:34:51.071,0:34:53.904 with clear eyes and free emotions. 0:34:58.650,0:35:01.733 Shaftesbury is telling[br]us to stop using things, 0:35:01.733,0:35:03.994 stop explaining them and exploiting them, 0:35:03.994,0:35:06.773 but look at them instead. 0:35:06.773,0:35:09.573 Then we will understand what they mean. 0:35:09.573,0:35:12.672 The message of the flower is the flower. 0:35:12.672,0:35:16.255 (light instrumental music) 0:35:23.997,0:35:27.277 Zen Buddhists have said similar things. 0:35:27.277,0:35:30.877 Only by leaving all our interests[br]and business to one side 0:35:30.877,0:35:34.738 do we encounter the real[br]truth of the flower. 0:35:34.738,0:35:38.539 Seeing things that way,[br]we discover their beauty. 0:35:38.539,0:35:42.039 (soft instrumental music) 0:35:45.682,0:35:47.981 The greatest philosopher[br]of the Enlightenment, 0:35:47.981,0:35:51.080 Immanuel Kant, was profoundly influenced 0:35:51.080,0:35:52.913 by Shaftesbury's idea. 0:35:54.280,0:35:57.458 Kant argued that the experience of beauty 0:35:57.458,0:36:00.701 comes when we put our[br]interests to one side, 0:36:00.701,0:36:03.458 when we look on things[br]not in order to use them 0:36:03.458,0:36:06.621 for our purposes or to[br]explain how they work 0:36:06.621,0:36:09.597 or to satisfy some need or appetite, 0:36:09.597,0:36:13.981 but simply to absorb them[br]and to endorse what they are. 0:36:13.981,0:36:17.481 (soft instrumental music) 0:36:22.360,0:36:24.360 Consider the joy you might feel 0:36:24.360,0:36:27.981 when you hold a friend's[br]baby in your arms. 0:36:27.981,0:36:30.381 You don't want to do[br]anything with the baby. 0:36:30.381,0:36:32.954 You don't want to eat[br]it, to put it to any use, 0:36:32.954,0:36:36.839 or to conduct scientific[br]experiments on it. 0:36:36.839,0:36:38.920 You want simply to look at it 0:36:38.920,0:36:42.242 and to feel the great[br]surge of delight that comes 0:36:42.242,0:36:44.941 when you focus all your[br]thoughts on this baby 0:36:44.941,0:36:47.160 and none at all on yourself. 0:36:47.160,0:36:50.660 (soft instrumental music) 0:36:52.098,0:36:53.736 That is what Kant described 0:36:53.736,0:36:56.520 as a disinterested attitude, 0:36:56.520,0:36:58.296 and it is the attitude that underlies 0:36:58.296,0:37:00.379 our experience of beauty. 0:37:03.997,0:37:06.103 To explain this is extremely difficult 0:37:06.103,0:37:07.656 because if you haven't experienced it, 0:37:07.656,0:37:10.039 you don't really know what it is, 0:37:10.039,0:37:14.040 but everybody listening to[br]a beautiful piece of music, 0:37:14.040,0:37:17.040 looking at a sublime landscape, 0:37:17.040,0:37:19.682 reading a poem which seems to contain 0:37:19.682,0:37:22.024 the essence of the thing it describes, 0:37:22.024,0:37:24.365 everybody in an experience like that 0:37:24.365,0:37:26.448 says yes, this is enough. 0:37:27.922,0:37:30.839 (soft piano music) 0:37:33.842,0:37:37.624 But why is this experience so important? 0:37:37.624,0:37:40.184 The encounter with beauty is so vivid, 0:37:40.184,0:37:43.288 so immediate, so personal that it seems 0:37:43.288,0:37:47.042 hardly to belong to the ordinary world, 0:37:47.042,0:37:50.525 yet beauty shines on us[br]from ordinary things. 0:37:50.525,0:37:52.523 Is it a feature of the world 0:37:52.523,0:37:55.190 or a figment of the imagination? 0:37:58.824,0:38:01.525 Most of the time, our lives are organized 0:38:01.525,0:38:05.848 by our everyday concerns,[br]but every now and then, 0:38:05.848,0:38:09.223 we find ourself jolted[br]out of our complacency 0:38:09.223,0:38:12.728 in the presence of something[br]vastly more important 0:38:12.728,0:38:16.044 than our immediate desires and interests, 0:38:16.044,0:38:18.377 something not of this world. 0:38:19.823,0:38:23.144 From Plato to Kant,[br]philosophers have tried 0:38:23.144,0:38:27.311 to capture the peculiar way[br]in which beauty dawns on us. 0:38:29.005,0:38:30.786 Like a sudden ray of sunlight 0:38:30.786,0:38:32.369 or a surge of love. 0:38:34.248,0:38:37.325 For Plato, the only explanation[br]of such an experience 0:38:37.325,0:38:40.124 was its transcendental origin. 0:38:40.124,0:38:43.291 It speaks to us like the voice of God. 0:38:47.309,0:38:50.146 And Kant too in a much more sober way 0:38:50.146,0:38:52.381 believed that the experience of beauty 0:38:52.381,0:38:56.298 connects us with the[br]ultimate mystery of being. 0:38:58.343,0:39:00.765 Through beauty, we are[br]brought into the presence 0:39:00.765,0:39:01.932 of the sacred. 0:39:08.061,0:39:10.584 We can understand what[br]such philosophers mean 0:39:10.584,0:39:14.669 if we reflect on what we feel[br]in the presence of death, 0:39:14.669,0:39:18.527 especially the death of someone loved. 0:39:18.527,0:39:20.882 We look with awe on the human body 0:39:20.882,0:39:23.208 from which their life has fled. 0:39:23.208,0:39:26.210 We are reluctant to touch the dead body. 0:39:26.210,0:39:29.528 We see it as not properly[br]a part of our world, 0:39:29.528,0:39:32.861 almost a visitor from some other sphere. 0:39:39.565,0:39:41.602 And the same sense of the transcendental 0:39:41.602,0:39:45.949 arises in the experience[br]that inspired Plato, 0:39:45.949,0:39:48.349 the experience of falling in love. 0:39:48.349,0:39:52.516 ("Les Contes d'Hoffmann" by Offenbach) 0:39:54.909,0:39:56.962 This too is a human universal, 0:39:56.962,0:40:01.144 and it is an experience[br]of the strangest kind, 0:40:01.144,0:40:03.383 the face and body of the beloved 0:40:03.383,0:40:06.189 are imbued with the intensest life, 0:40:06.189,0:40:08.450 but in one crucial respect, 0:40:08.450,0:40:11.700 they are like the body of someone dead. 0:40:12.962,0:40:17.282 They seem not to belong[br]in the everyday world. 0:40:17.282,0:40:19.464 Poets have expended thousands of words 0:40:19.464,0:40:21.821 on this experience which no words 0:40:21.821,0:40:23.904 seem entirely to capture. 0:40:27.682,0:40:30.685 But these great changes[br]in the stream of life, 0:40:30.685,0:40:33.064 the urge to unite with another person, 0:40:33.064,0:40:34.904 the loss of someone loved, 0:40:34.904,0:40:38.882 are moments that we understand as sacred. 0:40:38.882,0:40:42.882 (discordant instrumental music) 0:40:52.660,0:40:55.208 If we look at the history[br]of the idea of beauty, 0:40:55.208,0:40:57.208 we see that philosophers and artists 0:40:57.208,0:41:01.149 have had good reason to connect[br]the beautiful and the sacred 0:41:01.149,0:41:03.027 and to see our need for beauty 0:41:03.027,0:41:05.506 as something deep in our nature, 0:41:05.506,0:41:07.767 part of our longing for consolation 0:41:07.767,0:41:11.148 in a world of danger,[br]sorrow, and distress. 0:41:11.148,0:41:15.148 (discordant instrumental music) 0:41:20.101,0:41:24.087 Today, many artists look on the[br]idea of beauty with disdain, 0:41:24.087,0:41:26.823 a leftover from a vanished way of living 0:41:26.823,0:41:28.802 which has no real[br]connection with the world 0:41:28.802,0:41:30.869 which now surrounds us. 0:41:30.869,0:41:34.360 (discordant instrumental music) 0:41:34.360,0:41:36.722 So there has been a desire to desecrate 0:41:36.722,0:41:39.383 the experiences of sex and death 0:41:39.383,0:41:42.759 by displaying them in[br]trivial and impersonal ways 0:41:42.759,0:41:46.407 that destroy all sense of[br]their spiritual significance. 0:41:46.407,0:41:50.407 (discordant instrumental music) 0:41:56.902,0:41:58.801 Just as those who lose their religion 0:41:58.801,0:42:01.666 have an urge to mock the[br]faith that they have lost, 0:42:01.666,0:42:04.423 so do artists today feel an urge 0:42:04.423,0:42:07.639 to treat human life in demeaning ways 0:42:07.639,0:42:10.472 and to mock the pursuit of beauty. 0:42:14.461,0:42:18.407 This willful desecration[br]is also a denial of love, 0:42:18.407,0:42:20.701 an attempt to remake the world 0:42:20.701,0:42:23.362 as though love were no[br]longer a part of it, 0:42:23.362,0:42:27.358 and this, it seems to me, is[br]the most important feature 0:42:27.358,0:42:29.383 of our post-modern culture, 0:42:29.383,0:42:31.121 that it is a loveless culture 0:42:31.121,0:42:36.103 determined to portray the[br]human world as unlovable. 0:42:36.103,0:42:39.603 (soft instrumental music) 0:42:42.502,0:42:43.719 Of course this habit of dwelling 0:42:43.719,0:42:47.475 on the distressing side[br]of human life isn't new. 0:42:47.475,0:42:49.725 From the beginning of our civilization, 0:42:49.725,0:42:52.066 it has been one of the tasks of art 0:42:52.066,0:42:55.399 to take what is most painful[br]in the human condition 0:42:55.399,0:42:58.423 and to redeem it in a work of beauty. 0:42:58.423,0:43:01.090 (man screaming) 0:43:03.308,0:43:05.558 - Oh you are men of stones. 0:43:06.757,0:43:09.090 Had I your tongues and eyes, 0:43:09.933,0:43:14.016 I'd use them so that[br]heaven's vault should crack. 0:43:19.275,0:43:21.613 She's gone forever. 0:43:21.613,0:43:24.696 (lively piano music) 0:43:41.164,0:43:43.590 - Art has the ability to redeem life 0:43:43.590,0:43:47.757 by finding beauty even in[br]the worst aspect of things. 0:43:50.625,0:43:53.366 Mantegna's crucifixion,[br]displaying the cruelest 0:43:53.366,0:43:55.345 and most ugly of deaths, 0:43:55.345,0:43:58.680 achieves a kind of majesty and serenity. 0:43:58.680,0:44:02.124 It redeems the horror that it shows. 0:44:02.124,0:44:04.684 In the face of death,[br]human beings can still show 0:44:04.684,0:44:07.517 nobility, compassion, and dignity, 0:44:08.806,0:44:10.984 and art helps us to accept death 0:44:10.984,0:44:13.484 by presenting it in such a light. 0:44:13.484,0:44:16.484 (quick piano music) 0:44:20.124,0:44:21.926 What about things which are not tragic 0:44:21.926,0:44:24.521 but merely sordid or depraved? 0:44:24.521,0:44:27.233 Can art find beauty even here? 0:44:27.233,0:44:30.983 (frantic instrumental music) 0:44:37.809,0:44:39.350 This painting by Delacroix 0:44:39.350,0:44:44.246 shows us the artist's bed[br]in all its sordid disorder. 0:44:44.246,0:44:47.889 He too is bringing beauty[br]to a thing that lacks it 0:44:47.889,0:44:49.670 and bestowing a kind of blessing 0:44:49.670,0:44:51.920 on his own emotional chaos. 0:44:55.270,0:44:58.609 Delacroix says, see how[br]these sweat stained sheets 0:44:58.609,0:45:00.630 record the troubled dreams, 0:45:00.630,0:45:03.990 the tormented energy of the[br]person who has left them, 0:45:03.990,0:45:05.468 and how the light picks them out 0:45:05.468,0:45:09.788 as though they are still[br]animated by the sleeper. 0:45:09.788,0:45:12.646 The bed is transformed by the creative act 0:45:12.646,0:45:14.230 to become something else, 0:45:14.230,0:45:16.689 a vivid symbol of the human condition, 0:45:16.689,0:45:20.550 and one which makes a bond[br]between us and the artist. 0:45:20.550,0:45:23.633 (lively cello music) 0:45:28.268,0:45:32.689 Some people describe Tracey[br]Emin's bed in that way, 0:45:32.689,0:45:34.435 but there is all the[br]difference in the world 0:45:34.435,0:45:36.060 between a real work of art 0:45:36.060,0:45:38.278 which makes ugliness beautiful 0:45:38.278,0:45:40.118 and the fake work of art 0:45:40.118,0:45:43.451 which shares the ugliness that it shows. 0:45:46.550,0:45:48.518 This is modern life presented 0:45:48.518,0:45:51.435 in all its randomness and disorder. 0:45:55.097,0:45:58.902 - [David] What is it that makes that art 0:45:58.902,0:46:00.855 rather than just a rumpled bed? 0:46:00.855,0:46:02.556 - Well, the first thing that makes it art 0:46:02.556,0:46:03.817 is because I say that it is. 0:46:03.817,0:46:04.675 - [David] You say that it is. 0:46:04.675,0:46:05.508 - I say that it is. 0:46:05.508,0:46:07.177 - [David] The second thing[br]is the Tate says it is. 0:46:07.177,0:46:09.892 But what do you want the viewer, 0:46:09.892,0:46:12.196 the visitor to the gallery to say? 0:46:12.196,0:46:13.977 You presumably don't want him to say 0:46:13.977,0:46:15.796 I think that's beautiful. 0:46:15.796,0:46:17.972 - No, no one's actually[br]said that, only me. 0:46:17.972,0:46:19.316 - You think it's beautiful? 0:46:19.316,0:46:21.113 - Yeah I do.[br]- You do think it's beautiful. 0:46:21.113,0:46:22.116 - I think it beautiful yeah. 0:46:22.116,0:46:25.386 Otherwise, I wouldn't be sharing it. 0:46:25.386,0:46:27.689 - How can this be a beautiful work of art 0:46:27.689,0:46:29.508 if it makes no attempt to transform 0:46:29.508,0:46:32.569 the raw material of an idea? 0:46:32.569,0:46:35.828 It is just one sordid[br]reality among others, 0:46:35.828,0:46:37.732 literally an unmade bed. 0:46:37.732,0:46:42.068 (light instrumental music) 0:46:42.068,0:46:43.289 We are back with the question 0:46:43.289,0:46:45.148 raised by Duchamp's urinal 0:46:45.148,0:46:47.481 whether anything can be art. 0:46:49.091,0:46:51.950 This question occupies both[br]the would-be innovators 0:46:51.950,0:46:55.593 and the traditionalists[br]like Alexander Stoddart, 0:46:55.593,0:46:59.508 a monumental sculptor whose[br]works stand in public places 0:46:59.508,0:47:02.068 around the world as well[br]as in the Queen's gallery 0:47:02.068,0:47:04.627 at Buckingham Palace. 0:47:04.627,0:47:06.750 A defender of conceptual art 0:47:06.750,0:47:09.847 might say that an idea can be beautiful, 0:47:09.847,0:47:14.729 so that there's nothing wrong[br]with conceptual art as such. 0:47:14.729,0:47:18.896 - Yes, but this is in[br]everybody's field of endeavor. 0:47:20.505,0:47:23.129 The lawyer can come up[br]with a beautiful idea. 0:47:23.129,0:47:26.046 You know, the statesman, the medic. 0:47:28.148,0:47:30.729 Let's cure cancer, a beautiful idea, 0:47:30.729,0:47:33.374 but he doesn't say he's an[br]artist in the back of that. 0:47:33.374,0:47:37.108 Conceptual art, of course,[br]is entirely world bound. 0:47:37.108,0:47:39.828 It is in fact a kind[br]of art that's exhausted 0:47:39.828,0:47:41.950 in its veritable description, 0:47:41.950,0:47:43.928 so you need to just say, 0:47:43.928,0:47:46.291 half a cow in a tank of formaldehyde, 0:47:46.291,0:47:49.309 and you're really all the way there. 0:47:49.309,0:47:51.812 The object itself then can be dumped. 0:47:51.812,0:47:55.070 Tracey Emin's bed is a[br]perfect example of that. 0:47:55.070,0:47:58.403 If you walked past a skip in some scheme 0:47:59.709,0:48:01.993 and you saw that bed lying there, 0:48:01.993,0:48:04.612 you would walk on, but of course, 0:48:04.612,0:48:06.525 if you saw even just the torso 0:48:06.525,0:48:09.524 of the Apollo Belvedere[br]lying in that skip, 0:48:09.524,0:48:10.925 you would be arrested by it, 0:48:10.925,0:48:15.224 and you may even climb in[br]and try to retrieve it. 0:48:15.224,0:48:18.325 Many students come to me[br]from sculpture departments, 0:48:18.325,0:48:20.565 secretly of course, because they don't 0:48:20.565,0:48:22.887 want to tell their[br]tutors that they've come 0:48:22.887,0:48:24.765 to chat with the enemy, 0:48:24.765,0:48:28.386 and they say I try to[br]become a model figure, 0:48:28.386,0:48:30.866 and I modeled it in clay,[br]and then a tutor came up 0:48:30.866,0:48:33.266 and told me to cut it in half 0:48:33.266,0:48:36.040 and dump some diarrhea on top of it, 0:48:36.040,0:48:38.742 and that will make it interesting. 0:48:38.742,0:48:41.742 - It's what I feel about the kind of 0:48:42.663,0:48:46.007 standardized desecration that[br]passes for art these days 0:48:46.007,0:48:47.986 is actually a kind of immorality 0:48:47.986,0:48:50.551 because it is an attempt to obliterate 0:48:50.551,0:48:53.447 meaning from the human form in some way. 0:48:53.447,0:48:56.711 - Well it's intent to[br]obliterate knowledge. 0:48:56.711,0:49:00.294 (light instrumental music) 0:49:03.271,0:49:05.154 - The art establishment has turned away 0:49:05.154,0:49:07.053 from the old curriculum 0:49:07.053,0:49:10.994 which put beauty and craft[br]at the top of the agenda. 0:49:10.994,0:49:14.135 Those like Alexander[br]Stoddart who try to restore 0:49:14.135,0:49:17.150 the age old connection[br]between the beautiful 0:49:17.150,0:49:20.947 and the sacred are seen as[br]old fashioned and absurd. 0:49:20.947,0:49:24.530 (light instrumental music) 0:49:33.144,0:49:35.545 The same kind of criticism[br]is aimed at traditionalists 0:49:35.545,0:49:36.878 in architecture. 0:49:39.207,0:49:41.049 One target is Leon Krier, 0:49:41.049,0:49:43.630 architect of the Prince[br]of Wales' model town 0:49:43.630,0:49:45.409 of Poundbury. 0:49:45.409,0:49:49.608 (light instrumental music) 0:49:49.608,0:49:53.593 Designing modest streets,[br]laid out in traditional ways, 0:49:53.593,0:49:56.550 using the well tried[br]and much loved details 0:49:56.550,0:49:59.029 that have served us down the centuries, 0:49:59.029,0:50:03.129 Leon Krier as created[br]a genuine settlement. 0:50:03.129,0:50:06.296 The proportions are human proportions. 0:50:07.545,0:50:10.526 The details are restful to the eye. 0:50:10.526,0:50:14.109 (light instrumental music) 0:50:15.385,0:50:17.988 This is not great or original architecture 0:50:17.988,0:50:20.228 nor does it try to be. 0:50:20.228,0:50:23.166 It is a modest attempt to get things right 0:50:23.166,0:50:25.369 by following patterns and examples 0:50:25.369,0:50:27.929 laid down by tradition. 0:50:27.929,0:50:31.588 This is not nostalgia,[br]but knowledge passed on 0:50:31.588,0:50:32.921 from age to age. 0:50:37.630,0:50:40.068 Architecture that doesn't respect the past 0:50:40.068,0:50:41.988 is not respecting the present 0:50:41.988,0:50:45.028 because it is not respecting[br]people's primary need 0:50:45.028,0:50:46.590 from architecture, which is to build 0:50:46.590,0:50:48.257 a longstanding home. 0:50:49.369,0:50:53.036 (lively instrumental music) 0:50:58.686,0:51:00.126 I have shown some of the ways 0:51:00.126,0:51:02.148 in which artists and architects 0:51:02.148,0:51:05.689 have followed the call of beauty. 0:51:05.689,0:51:09.486 In doing so, they have[br]given our world meaning. 0:51:09.486,0:51:12.508 (lively instrumental music) 0:51:12.508,0:51:15.012 The masters of the past recognized 0:51:15.012,0:51:16.847 that we have spiritual needs 0:51:16.847,0:51:19.180 as well as animal appetites. 0:51:21.423,0:51:24.842 For Plato, beauty was a path to God 0:51:24.842,0:51:26.516 while thinkers of the Enlightenment 0:51:26.516,0:51:30.378 saw art and beauty as ways[br]in which we save ourselves 0:51:30.378,0:51:32.234 from meaningless routines 0:51:32.234,0:51:34.484 and rise to a higher level. 0:51:37.615,0:51:40.618 But art turned its back on beauty. 0:51:40.618,0:51:43.452 It became a slave to the consumer culture 0:51:43.452,0:51:46.255 feeding our pleasures and addictions 0:51:46.255,0:51:48.436 and wallowing in self-disgust. 0:51:48.436,0:51:52.298 (lively instrumental music) 0:51:52.298,0:51:54.058 That, it seems to me, is the lesson 0:51:54.058,0:51:58.618 of the ugliest forms of[br]modern art and architecture. 0:51:58.618,0:52:02.276 They do not show reality,[br]but take revenge on it, 0:52:02.276,0:52:04.596 spoiling what might have been a home 0:52:04.596,0:52:08.474 and leaving us to wander[br]unconsoled and alienated 0:52:08.474,0:52:10.307 in a spiritual desert. 0:52:13.994,0:52:16.871 Of course it is true that there[br]is much in the world today 0:52:16.871,0:52:19.876 that distracts and troubles us. 0:52:19.876,0:52:22.629 Our lives are full of leftovers. 0:52:22.629,0:52:25.817 We battle through lies and distraction, 0:52:25.817,0:52:27.434 and nothing resolves. 0:52:27.434,0:52:31.556 (lively instrumental music) 0:52:31.556,0:52:33.073 The right response, however, 0:52:33.073,0:52:36.116 is not to endorse this alienation. 0:52:36.116,0:52:39.716 It is to look for the[br]path back from the desert, 0:52:39.716,0:52:41.851 one that will point us to a place 0:52:41.851,0:52:46.018 where the real and the ideal[br]may still exist in harmony. 0:52:48.058,0:52:51.891 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:52:57.929,0:53:00.168 In my own life, I have found this path 0:53:00.168,0:53:02.612 more easily through music 0:53:02.612,0:53:05.279 than through any other art form. 0:53:08.324,0:53:12.793 Pergolesi was 26 when he[br]wrote the Stabat Mater. 0:53:12.793,0:53:15.251 It describes the grief of the holy virgin 0:53:15.251,0:53:19.012 beside the cross of the dying Christ. 0:53:19.012,0:53:20.473 All the suffering of the world 0:53:20.473,0:53:23.129 is symbolized in its exquisite lines. 0:53:23.129,0:53:26.962 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:53:31.614,0:53:34.073 Given that Pergolesi was[br]suffering from tuberculosis 0:53:34.073,0:53:36.473 when he wrote the Stabat Mater, 0:53:36.473,0:53:40.473 he is that son dying on the cross too. 0:53:40.473,0:53:42.169 In fact, he died within a few months 0:53:42.169,0:53:44.252 of the work's completion. 0:53:45.753,0:53:49.054 This is not a complex or[br]ambitious piece of music, 0:53:49.054,0:53:51.010 simply a heartfelt expression 0:53:51.010,0:53:53.614 of the composer's faith. 0:53:53.614,0:53:56.932 It shows the way in which[br]deep and troubling emotions 0:53:56.932,0:54:00.599 can achieve unity and[br]freedom through music. 0:54:02.367,0:54:05.731 The voice of Mary is[br]written for two singers. 0:54:05.731,0:54:08.612 The melody rises slowly, painfully, 0:54:08.612,0:54:11.331 resolving dissonance only to be gripped 0:54:11.331,0:54:14.334 by another dissonance as the voices clash, 0:54:14.334,0:54:18.334 representing the conflict[br]and sorrow within her. 0:54:21.870,0:54:25.433 - [Catherine] Why don't[br]I just give you, bar 18? 0:54:25.433,0:54:27.449 - [Roger] Okay, good idea. 0:54:27.449,0:54:31.282 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:54:57.708,0:55:00.892 - Here we have a very[br]simple and sacred text. 0:55:00.892,0:55:05.059 The mother stands grieving[br]and weeping at the cross 0:55:06.471,0:55:08.774 on which her son is hanging. 0:55:08.774,0:55:10.833 That's really all that you have to say. 0:55:10.833,0:55:12.229 - And a completely unmusical person 0:55:12.229,0:55:14.172 would be immediately get the message 0:55:14.172,0:55:16.972 that it's a piece of[br]grieving, wouldn't they? 0:55:16.972,0:55:19.532 There can be no possible doubt about that. 0:55:19.532,0:55:21.372 - The music takes over the words 0:55:21.372,0:55:23.565 and makes them speak to you 0:55:23.565,0:55:27.153 in another language in your own heart. 0:55:27.153,0:55:29.515 - Well it means that today,[br]in our secular world, 0:55:29.515,0:55:31.510 that it can delight and move 0:55:31.510,0:55:33.452 without people having to know. 0:55:33.452,0:55:34.455 - [Roger] Yes, exactly. 0:55:34.455,0:55:35.468 - What it's about. 0:55:35.468,0:55:38.346 - We learn without the[br]theological apparatus 0:55:38.346,0:55:41.329 that there is this thing called suffering, 0:55:41.329,0:55:43.489 and that it's at the destiny of all of us, 0:55:43.489,0:55:46.428 but also is not the end of all of us. 0:55:46.428,0:55:50.261 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:57:12.172,0:57:14.225 In this film, I have described beauty 0:57:14.225,0:57:16.308 as an essential resource. 0:57:17.559,0:57:19.126 Through the pursuit of beauty, 0:57:19.126,0:57:20.945 we shape the world as a home, 0:57:20.945,0:57:24.524 and in doing so, we both amplify our joys 0:57:24.524,0:57:27.569 and find consolation for our sorrows. 0:57:27.569,0:57:30.705 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:57:30.705,0:57:33.569 Art and music shine a light of meaning 0:57:33.569,0:57:36.060 on ordinary life, and through them, 0:57:36.060,0:57:39.569 we are able to confront[br]the things that trouble us 0:57:39.569,0:57:43.736 and to find consolation and[br]peace in their presence. 0:57:46.545,0:57:49.446 This capacity of beauty[br]too redeem our suffering 0:57:49.446,0:57:52.107 is one reason why beauty can be seen 0:57:52.107,0:57:54.545 as a substitute for religion. 0:57:54.545,0:57:58.705 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:57:58.705,0:58:01.505 Why give priority to religion? 0:58:01.505,0:58:04.566 Why not say that religion[br]is a beauty substitute? 0:58:04.566,0:58:08.065 Better still, why describe[br]the two as rivals? 0:58:08.065,0:58:11.644 The sacred and the beautiful[br]stand side by side, 0:58:11.644,0:58:15.323 two doors that open onto a single space, 0:58:15.323,0:58:18.326 and in that space, we find our home. 0:58:18.326,0:58:22.159 ("Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi) 0:58:39.804,0:58:41.244 - [Broadcaster] And our[br]Modern Beauty season 0:58:41.244,0:58:43.265 continues on Monday night with large scale 0:58:43.265,0:58:45.723 pieces of public art[br]challenging the six finalists 0:58:45.723,0:58:48.625 of the School of Saatchi at nine. 0:58:48.625,0:58:50.465 Next tonight on BBC Two, this week's 0:58:50.465,0:58:51.665 Have I Got News For You 0:58:51.665,0:58:53.748 complete with extra bits.