Art refers to a broad range of human activities in the creation of visual, auditory and performing artifacts. Such activities might include, but not limited to music, poetry, literature and painting. They express the author’s technical or imaginative skill. The authors who partake in these acts often aim to get an appreciation for the beauty and attractiveness of their works or emotional prowess.
In general, art entails the production of artwork, history of art and its aesthetic dissemination. History enables lovers of art, and cultural studies understand how various artistic components came about. They learn about the philosophies that guided early artists in their masterpieces. Through the study and analysis of historical art and its aesthetics, we get do improve on various concepts of art that affect our culture and use them to improve the way we think and act as a society.
Aesthetics forms one of the branches of study within philosophy. It examines the properties of art and the human experience in it. Many philosophers begun to claim that reason alone could not give an explanation of the concept of beauty. Beauty can have rational perspectives such as symmetry, order, and perceptions. These attributes show that the word beautiful has a multidimensional and multifaceted meaning. Its understanding must get accompanied by intuition and the experience of human feeling and emotions.
Culture, on the other hand, is the collective term referring to the socially transmitted behavioral pattern. It includes beliefs, art institutions and all other manifestations of human works and thought. In general, culture involves all the things that make up people's way of life. This might include their beliefs, religious practice, ceremonies and events, way of dressing and cuisine. This paper is, therefore, delves into the American concepts of art and culture. It also studies how these tenets of art in culture resonate globally. This objective gets achieved through the review of artistic works from three famous writers.
The Soul of Rumi
This book is a wealth and robust conglomeration of ecstatic poetry. It aims to call us into the unavoidable inner work. This spiritual work refers to the essence of our life here on earth. According to philosophers, every human being gets born with a purpose. It is an individual duty to find out and fulfill that purpose before you die. We, as humans are mortal beings. Therefore, we must always seek to fulfill our missions in life before we expire.
Rumi's poetry emanated from the rich soil of Sufism. It communicates to the hearts and minds of people from all spiritual paths and religions. Coleman Barks translated the original works of this artist, assisted by Jalal Al-Din Rumi. These two authors sat down and painstakingly took their time to understand the meaning of Rumi’s poems. They then paraphrased them and gave in-depth explanations of their deeper meaning.
Other scholars refer to Coleman's works simply as renditions because he does not operate from the Farsi. He adds his personal observations on the significance and mystery of it all. Therefore, the work seems more like a narration of an event in the eyes of another observer. Within the poems, he discusses common motifs of the banquet, initiation, water imagery, expressions of praise and grief.
Towards the end of the book, he recognizes Rumi’s popularity in the west. The ecstatic material in Rumi’s poems expunged earlier on from the Christian canon and Rumi seemed to have met the requirements within American culture. Most Americans seem accepting of the Philosophies of Rumi. Not only is Rumi an influential artist in American culture, but also compelling figures in all cultures the world over.
Rumi incorporated music and dance into religious practice. This concept resonates very well especially with the black community whose culture profoundly includes music and dance. His poems articulate what it feels to be human across time and place. Coleman once gave an attribute to Rumi that, “His startling imaginative freshness, the deep longing that we feel coming through and his sense of humor. There is always playfulness, mixed in with the wisdom (Barks 62).
Old Heart
Included in the poems are personal encounters by the author. Nearly all the poems in Old Heart amount to a substantial meditation. The American Academy of Arts and Letters made a declaration about Plumly. They claimed that he had steadily and quietly expanded the reach of lyric poetry within the English language. Lyric poetry at the time was widely unknown. It mainly was an upcoming sub-genre of poetry. With his works, he brought this concept to the limelight and enhanced its appeal within the culture of Americans.
Furthermore, Plumly reinvigorated American poetry. Most poets, even though spoke about real and sensitive issues, they lacked the flame and vigor to captivate the masses. People need not only to understand poetry but also feel its power and resonance to the societal issues. Most Americans believe that his rigor and modesty of literature combine in old heart. These poems are entertaining, enthralling and educational all at the same time. In fact, the American Academy of arts and letters considers it one of his finest poetry books. A quote from his works states that “And now as each day seems like my own soul, farther and farther off, lost in its light as in a dream in which I meant to ask you something.” These words have a strong sense of mortality (Jordan & Plumly 397).
On Beauty and Being Just
Scarry argues that people’s responses to beauty are perceptual events of large significance for the individual and the society. Many people have put forward political arguments against beauty. The author claims that these cases form a distraction from more important issues. The purpose they mainly archive is to mask various political interests.
In this literary piece, Elaine Scarry defends beauty from political arguments. She makes a postulation that beauty also presses us towards more concern for justice. For members of society to coexist peacefully, the rule of law and fair governance must prevail.
A beautiful object renders fairness concrete through making it directly available to our sensory perceptions. With a direct appeal to our senses, beauty stops us in our tracks and fills us with aliveness. It takes the individual away from the center of their self pre-occupation. Her poems make us focus attention towards others and ultimately towards ethical fairness. A quote from her work states, “The beautiful, almost without any effort of our own, acquaints us with the mental event of conviction (Scarry 29).
The Rubin Museum of Art
This museum has an extraordinary dedication to the collection, preservation, and display of the cultures and art of India, the Himalayas, and neighboring regions. A permanent collection also focuses primarily on Tibetan art. The Rubin Museum originated from a private collection of Himalayan art that Shelley and Donald Rubin had been assembling from 1974. It offers a myriad of educational and public programs. These include talks, film screenings, dance, live music, poetry and many other art demonstrations. This museum is an example of how stored artifacts of historical culture can get used to teach future generations. Famous exhibitions include “methods for Transcendence” as well as “portraits of Transmission.” (Jackson 25).
Other scholarly views
Many scholars agree that American culture encompasses traditions and customs of the USA. The culture involves food, what people wear, religion, language, marriage, perception of right and wrong. They also include minor aspects such as how we sit at the table, how to greet visitors and interactions with loved ones.
The United States forms the world's third largest country with a population of over 320 million. For this reason, it is also one of the most culturally diverse. It is a country of immigrants who came with different cultures. Each culture contributed its distinct flavor in the general American culture. The country became like a melting pot of culture.
Just as cultures from all over the world influenced America, America today affects world culture. There is no official language in America. So many languages get spoken in this country from Chinese to Spanish to English to French to German. Numerous religious beliefs exist in this country. Clothing styles also vary from generation to generation and from culture to culture. Musicians and the mass media are the determiners of fashion trends. Contemporary culture and arts also get controlled by mass media channels like film and television (Belton 17).
Works cited
Barks, Coleman. The Soul of Rumi. Harper Collins, 2010.
Belton, John. American Cinema/American Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
Jackson, David Paul, and New York Rubin Museum of Art. The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting: [published in conjunction with an exhibition organized and presented by the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, September 3, 2010, through May 23, 2011]. Rubin Museum of Art, 2010.
Scarry, Elaine. On beauty and being just. Princeton University Press, 2013.
Smith, Jordan, and Stanley Plumly. "Old Heart: Poems." (2008): 397-398.
