1. Douglas N Morgan, writing in 1967: “The fine arts are adventures that deserve to be taken seriously. To subordinate them to the sciences, by reducing each work of art to the status of truth vehicle, is to take each art less than seriously. …We are learning, in our presentmad thrust toward research for research’s sake, atleast as many insipid truths as we are learning vivid and important ones. Truth is not a stigma indisputably indicating holy origin. Headpieces can be filled with straw truths as well as wise ones. ….do we still have patience to attend the man who dares stop short of truth and falsehood or go beyond it and make with sound or colour or words a thing that neither asks nor welcomes any ambitious techniques of verification but is modestly content with enriching some lonely human soul?”
1.1. This presents us with another point of view again - he is saying that the question is misplaced. Why do we search for truth - in a cognitive sense - a form of 'knowledge', when Art might not be that, may not be reducible to that in any sense, and that the value of Art may be in an experience that can only be appreciated by participation, enjoyment, shared feeling.
2. Art is to do with aesthetic, or sensory, experience, right? So doesn't the answer to this question depend on our answering another question - can we rely on our senses to purvey truth about the world around us?
2.1. Sometimes, the word 'aesthetic' is used to mean 'beautiful' in some agreed way. e.g. A Zen Aesthetic is minimalist, simple, fresh and balanced; while a Gothic aesthetic is dark, monumental and barbaric.
2.2. Can we manage without sense data? Can we know anything at all without the evidence of our senses in fact? Rationalist philosophers Locke and Hume for instance would say that we certainly can't.
2.2.1. We could try depriving ourselves of sense experience and see what happens. The sensory deprivation chamber claims to be a way to do this. They were first used in 1954 to test the effects of sensory deprivation. They vastly reduce the sensory data you receive by suspending the body in a flotation solution, at blood temperature and then light and sound is also taken away. https://assets.vogue.com/photos/58914e9a97a3db337a24982d/4:3/w_2996,h_2247,c_limit/sensory-deprivation-chamber-new-trend.jpg
2.2.1.1. The therapeutic value of these things is well documented: John Lennon got over his heroin addiction by regular flotations in 1979, and the sense of weightlessness really alleviates a lot of suffering for those with spinal disabilities that mean they live with 24-hour discomfort. But while reducing the amount of sense data we receive can be good for us - it's not like we can actually cease to sense, unless we're dead: how can we possibly know what it feels like not to feel?
2.3. Definition: Aesthetic (think anaesthetic) - to do with beauty, principles of beauty or of an artistic movement.
2.3.1. Remember that we speak of people as having good or bad 'taste', when it comes to their appreciation and interaction with Art.
3. When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." poet John Keats 1795-1821
3.1. This doesn't just say that there's truth in Art, or that artists can reflect the truth, it claims that beauty itself is truth, so Art that is beautiful is somehow truer than even reality itself?
3.1.1. Eternal value is given to qualities that attain to the 'sublime' in classical aesthetic theory: the highest degree of harmony and perfection; that which uplifts the capacities of mankind; Edmund Burke: that 'which astonishes the soul'; or romantic sense of the divine in nature.
3.1.1.1. The Taj Mahal in India is considered to be beautiful because it is perfectly symmetrical and has perfection of proportions and line. Keats seems to suggest that this sublime beauty relates directly to an invisible perfection that exists outside time - like claims for God, or Love:https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TYRVDGFpzqc/ViZWYIJj3PI/AAAAAAAABa8/ALkZ8rWC_Yw/s1600/STA-TRAVEL-LAST-MINUTE.jpg
3.1.1.1.1. Could you describe this architecture as 'true'?
4. Feelings are so much at the heart of what artists focus on.
5. TRUE LOVE
5.1. Drink to me only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I’ll not look for wine. The thirst that from the soul doth rise, Doth ask a drink divine: But might I of Jove’s nectar sup, I would not change for thine. Ben Jonson
5.1.1. Perhaps we are talking about different kinds of truth - what is true love? It's not just facts, it's to do with relationship and the integrity and special nature of that relationship. What is the meaning of truth here?
5.1.1.1. Or is it that the truth we experience with art has more to do with a certain type of relationship? The truth of our art is in the way it reflects and makes us experience ourselves in relation to it? “Through the music, the artist gets you to look at yourself in some new way. It is not about looking at the artist so much but about looking at whatever the artist is showing you that relates to you—your own personality, your own being—that makes you think about your life and what you’re doing.” Bobby McFerrin
6. Plato famously wanted to ban artists from his ideal 'Republic' because they are dealers in dreams and their work is always based on illusion. Surely artists are tricksters really and so not trustworthy when it comes to seeking truth?
6.1. One artwork that plays a brilliant trick on the viewer is Richard Wilson's room flooded with oil. The slick of crude oil reaches a metre high and permeates every corner of the space. The incredible thing is that the surface is a totally reflective mirror - a totally true reflection - yet your hand would be black with wet 'black gold' if you dipped it in. https://d1gn9jfso7kpav.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/02-Installation-view-of-Richard-Wilson.jpg
6.1.1. So what is the point? Do we need to have the artist's interpretation along with the piece to get it? Actually, you're just overwhelmed and uplifted by the sheer beauty and weight of this image as you stand in the middle of the room. But the image is also one that stays with you and it remains buried in your subconscious drawing resonances together - the dependency of the world economic systems on this substance, the industrial revolution it sparked and which has brought us to the edge of extinction, the richness and purity of the material while being a symbol of evil in a sense by its completeness of black... in another sense the experience is mystical as the reflection is more total that you could find with glass mirrors. Arguably, the artist's intention in creating it was not consciously to produce all these layers of meaning, the creation itself has potentials beyond what he intended. Arguably too, the art work becomes truer the longer you live with the image and the memory, because it continues to gain in meaning and depth.
6.1.2. “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” Pablo Picasso
6.1.2.1. Perhaps truth of human nature is what we're looking for from Art. After all, a novel is a work of fiction, a lie, but one that we agree to enjoy because we think we will discover some truths of our nature through it. As an example, let's consider George Orwell's classic political satire and cautionary tale 'Animal Farm'. The world here is conceived as a farm where animals struggle for power and control.
6.1.2.1.1. It's a strange, fantastical world he imagines. Yet it's very clearly speaking about our familiar world. The imagination plays a key role in Artistic creation. Perhaps the imagination is the key to seeing human nature for what it is. Without an imaginative leap can we really see ourselves as we are?
7. Photojournalism, even film, can be misleading - The Guardian's 1986 'Points of view' advert
8. Representation of reality can be photographic, which is a kind of truth.
8.1. ...or not. If we go to representation of a very low-tech kind - stone age cave paintings - there are limitations in terms of photo-realism: https://www.thalo.com/thumbnail/021913_3563f707-564177729-5123c60c-91d8-865ede91/o.jpg
8.1.1. ...yes and ....the paintings don't seem to even aim for any realistic depiction of the relative size of animals that these people must have known very well and could have chosen to show. But then perhaps that is not the nature of this painting.
8.1.1.1. What it does achieve, astonishingly for a painting of this size (it takes up the ceiling of an enormous cave tunnel) is a sense of herds in motion. If the painters wanted to communicate with this work what it feels like to be close to migrating herds of animals they have achieved a very immediate sensory impression of that for the viewer.
8.1.1.1.1. So then perhaps representational Art, which this surely is, can be truer to life than a photograph because in a visual (2 dimensional) relayed form, we can only absorb one aspect of a sensory experience at a time?
8.1.1.2. Perhaps there is a distortion in the perspective of the painting because the intended use was not what we normally think of as the use of Art. Perhaps these images were not made to be looked at as a whole and perhaps the relative sizes of animals has to do with their relative importance as sources of food, or perhaps as objects of ritual, prayer or sacrifice?
8.1.1.2.1. So then does an artist necessarily present a work distorted by their own perspective according to the uses of the art, or the intentions of the artist?
9. We rely ever more on two dimensional visual representations as a means to understand the world.
9.1. What's the relationship, then, between Art and truth in, say, History?
9.1.1. We all know that artists can be employed to create propaganda, to re-write history and give a romanticised, distorted or even utterly false sense of events. Look at Sociorealist propaganda for instance, or the racist propaganda that fuelled the rise of Nazism:https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9e/ce/2a/9ece2a033766d475b90dddd2295873dc.jpg
9.1.1.1. Or this:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Jacques-Louis_David_-_Napoleon_Crossing_the_Alps_-_Kunsthistorisches_Museum.jpg It's a completely romanticised image. Napoleon didn't look like this - young, fit warrior. He didn't gallop over the mountains on a prancing hose and the task of crossing the alps with the French Army was nothing like this in real life. The painting 'Napoleon Crossing the Alps' was intended for Charles IV's royal palace in Madrid. There, it was hung among paintings of other great military leaders as a symbol of Spain and France's friendly relationship.
9.1.1.2. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/EwigerJudeFilm.jpg
9.1.1.2.1. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/nazi-propaganda-ushmm-49821.jpg
9.1.2. So is the role of artists in the historical record only to distort, pervert the popular imagination with images that lead us all to gather around false beliefs and manipulated views?
9.1.2.1. What about the art of rhetoric - oratory? What does it take to convince us of the truth if we don't want to hear it?
9.1.2.1.1. Martin Luther King's most famous speech and one which has a resonance today was artfully constructed around the central image of a dream. His allusion to the 'American Dream' is clear and his suggestion that his dream is a prophetic vision in a Biblical sense is also unmistakable. I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King .Jr HD (subtitled)
10. We expect truth to appear self-evident, clear, uncluttered - like a well framed logical proposition. Mathematical truths are almost unassailable. Is this because they are beautiful, or are they beautiful because they are true?
10.1. There are clear parallels between art and mathematics - principles of composition in 2 dimensional visual art include the mathematical calculation of perspective (the art of creating the illusion of 3 dimensional space) and the use of archetypal ratios to balance the elements of a picture with one another.
10.1.1. Fibonacci is the perfect example: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRtHqqqp_XnCb3EnR8R1n_Zdcm7f5tYIjE-J-XWXif6QCCiHJX3
10.1.1.1. And you can see his principles at work in perspective and composition in one of the most famous paintings of the Italian Renaissance:https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/01/1b/f0011b51295168d739a436b4b77bcfac.jpg