Vic Bakin – Parthenonas, Sithonia (2016)
[I]n the realm of ethics, politics, aesthetics it was the authenticity and
sincerity of the pursuit of inner goals that mattered; this applied
equally to individuals and groups – states, nations, movements. This is
most evident in the aesthetics of romanticism, where the notion of
eternal models, a Platonic vision of ideal beauty, which the artist
seeks to convey, however imperfectly, on canvas or in sound, is replaced
by a passionate belief in spiritual freedom, individual creativity. The
painter, the poet, the composer do not hold up a mirror to nature,
however ideal, but invent; they do not imitate (the doctrine of
mimesis), but create not merely the means but the goals that they
pursue; these goals represent the self-expression of the artist’s own
unique, inner vision, to set aside which in response to the demands of
some “external” voice – church, state, public opinion, family friends,
arbiters of taste – is an act of betrayal of what alone justifies their
existence for those who are in any sense creative.–Isaiah Berlin, on the relationship between Romanticism and the rise of fascism /totalitarianism.
Acetylene Eyes 