Ugliness Portrayed in Modern Makeup

  • Published : 2005.12.30

Abstract

This paper has examined how ugliness has aesthetically been portrayed in modern make-up. In the past, ugliness was regarded as an antonym of beauty, but it recently plays a role on part of beauty, as independent portion of art. It was Schegel who initially maintained the view. According to his theory, ugliness represents interesting things including suffering reality, shock, attention, humor, surprises brought by distort and deformation. Hegel had a different view on it. As for him, he had the notion that ugliness was the opposite to beauty and that it had to be dependent in art, he argued that art was subordinate to philosophy, and that it was just nostalgia for the past, not representing reality, therefore, it could not be a foothold in contemporary art. In this context, some images of ugliness can be classified accordingly to Schegel's view deteste, decadence and androgynous can be fallen into a category describing reality; fetish, kitsch and grotesque can be included in interesting things. There is no fine line between the two. There are sometimes things they have in common. They mutually draw attentions by distancing themselves from general images of beauty, or making many changes and distorts in its part, using unique materials, unprecedented attempts of colors which result in creative and shocking images. Attempts made in ugly images in modern art are widening its concept to depicting reality on the body of human beings, also creating its new definition, playing a major role in independent part of modern art, not in the past way like wearing make-up on the face to make it look better.

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