The Hunter and the Game

Peter Dickinson, Curator, Beauty and the Beast

‘Just think it’s got a bit of me inside you. It might have my eyes’ Mercy Wolf - Funland.

Reason is a philosophical tool and is valued as a way to truth and the beautiful. This premise sets up reason as beautiful and violence as ugly, discrimination as ugly, tolerance as beautiful. Adopting a tolerant attitude can be painful to those who assume a moral high ground and assume their vision is right. Art is not reason, but artists are encouraged to justify their art with reasons. Curators are asked to explain their exhibitions or collections with research and reason by way of communicating the ideas behind what they do. If art has any power, this is correct whether it is classical or contemporary. This is counter-intuitive to a sense of what art is and how it performs. Beauty maybe, unlike the sublime, achievable through reason, but does beauty rely on reason for its existence? Should beauty rely on reason for its existence?

I am an artist not an academic or a philosopher; my powers of reason are limited, but I will endeavor to explain my thoughts and feelings about Stourhead, beauty and the exhibition Beauty and the Beast. I expect that a large part of the audience at Stourhead will perceive the contemporary as the ugly and by Edmund Burke’s definitions in his enquiry of 1757, italics the sublime and the beautiful, it may well be: ‘Beauty should not be obscure, beauty should be light and delicate.’ I believe the ugly, the Beast can be obvious, light and delicate. I hope to provoke discussion and appreciation of the artists’ work that I have presented and to enable others to see Stourhead and classicism from a different perspective. 

To be invited to curate an exhibition at Stourhead was a daunting honour. Heritage on a grand scale is imposing and sets a strong agenda. The theme of Beauty and the Beast was inspired by the classical aesthetic encapsulated at Stourhead and the idea of introducing contemporary art to this environment. Contemporary art frequently questions matters of taste as it questions meaning and context, and in doing so may reject classicism as past it, established, lacking meaning and elitist ideals. And, just as frequently, classical values are hailed as the antidote to the perceived corruption of the contemporary, its common values, its disrespect for craft or social grace., its debasement of mankind, its lack of learning and skill. These polarised points of view stifle and contain. The contemporary has emerged from the classical and the classical was once contemporary.  Using fairy tales to confront difficult subjects is an ancient device and on his visit to Stourhead when considering what to do for the next exhibition, Gavin Turk expressed his understanding: ‘That form of storytelling is probably the most radical experience, the most extreme experience that children are allowed to be presented.’ I am not presenting a definitive alternative to classicism or the most radical, but I know I am presenting work by dedicated and sincere artists. 

An Aristotelian, i.e. peripatetic, approach, is key to making the most of both the site itself, Stourhead gardens, and the Beauty and the Beast exhibition. When I first started the project, I was given a guided tour of the gardens by Alan Power, the head gardener, as an introduction to Stourhead and to working with him. As we walked, accompanied by Katherine Boyd from the National Trust, he explained how the gardens had been designed to create delightful vistas and surprises. This journey around the garden is more than a visual treat or an appreciation of plants, architecture and statuary, it also makes eloquent use of symbols and describes a metaphorical life journey, presenting prescribed routes, temptations and choices. The most resonant view for me is that presented at the start of the descent on the terraced walk. Having just passed the avenue to the obelisk, surrounded by laurel, the pagan Temple of Apollo can be viewed across the valley. If in a hurry, the visitor is likely to miss seeing the Christian church tucked down in the valley to the left. The views are dramatic and inviting, but the route to the religious monuments are not obvious and the pilgrim is then led away into the shade and darkness of the trees and to the discoveries of the garden around the lake. Matthew Collings in a recent edition of Modern Painters discusses his appreciation for old art and observes, ‘...’art’ we are told is for some kind of spiritual purpose. But since we haven’t been spiritual for ages we don’t know how to make use of it.’ hardly surprising, then, that if Sourhead has this spiritual dimension, it is misunderstood, and is treated, rather, as a theme park. 

A key figure at Stourhead is Apollo, to whom are attributed numerous qualities, and who oversees the classical, pagan, gods of the gardens. The significance of the sun as a huge thermonuclear reactor that enables all life on earth is recognised in the symbol of Apollo. He encapsulates the dualism of the Beauty and the Beast theme. He is classical, he is a figure of myth and so contrasts with the Christian; he represents youth and beauty, like the sun, can be destructive. Heis also able, according to Alexander Murray in the Manual of Mythology, to shed light on the dark reveal, truths: ‘[Apollo] throws light on the dark ways of the future and represents security in the ways of the future and represents security in the dismissal of the unknown and feared. 

Stourhead is a sensual place; it induces a mood of veneration. A number of conversations I have had about Stourhead have revealed how, for some, it seems erotic, potent, fomenting an urge toward sexual celebration and abandon. These feelings may seem contradictory in light of the saintly associations of the word veneration, but as I discovered, or rather rediscovered, veneration is derived from the name of the goddess Venus. The celebrations of Beauty known as Veneralia ‘consisted of night dances and passionate enjoyments in gardens among blooms’ (Alexander Murray in the Manual of Mythology). While I failed initially to make this linguistic connection, I had no problem remembering Venus’s role in the venereal - the benefits of a classical education. 

Where French landscape gardens glorified the monarchy and reflected the authority of the State, English gardens aimed to express the freedom of the individual and the choices of the individual within an essentially good Nature. The choices available to the visitor at Stourhead on their journey around the grounds are integral to the design and to the work of Alan Power and his team. Storuhead’s classical beauty is esteemed and popular. The passion and vision that gave rise to it is evident, as is the care and dedication with which it is managed today. Sightlines and desire lines pull and push people on their way and in doing so encourage reflection and awareness. Maintaining the experience for the thousands who visit not only involves practical decisions but aesthetic ones, and they can impact on each other considerably. 

It was evident in our conversation that Alan Power’s responsibilities informed his concerns about putting a contemporary art exhibition on at Stourhead. During our walk, I was presented with the list of issues of which the National Trust needs to be mindful. These included flora, fauna, wildlife, buildings, pollution, costs, resources, and visitor expectations. I was made aware of the full potential impact of the exhibition - not only the possible physical effects but also the aesthetic. I was taken aback by the number of hoops I was going to have to jump through, the work this would entail and the genuine reverence and passion Alan had for his ward. I was aware that in taking on the exhibition I had effectively been invited to paint upon the picture Alan works hard to preserve. Having run workshops that invite participants to respond to and work on each other’s work, I know how tense and protective this makes people feel. I knew Stourhead’s many dedicated, passionate supporters and visitors would feel the same sense of ownership and identification that Alan has.

The arrival of contemporary art in the classical landscape was always going to be seen by some as an intervention. Appropriately the usage of the word “intervene” is illustrated in a number of American dictionaries with a quote from Dora Galitzki, a writer and gardener: ‘Every gardener faces choices about how and how much to intervene in nature’s processes.’ This is a dilemma I face as a curator, but it confronts everyone when intervening with nature. Frequently artists not only want to reveal and generate awareness of the effect of process but also to draw attention to the process itself. The awareness of this cause and effect involves aesthetic assessment, a critical assessment reflection on Beauty and the Beast. What is beautiful? Is my purpose to make something beautiful?

Since taking this walk with Alan I have “walked the walk” many times with artists, National Trust experts, advisors, friends and family. My walks with the artists involved me introducing them to the ideas behind the design of Stourhead and, hopefully, opening up the palette available to them, while making them aware of the constraints of the environment they would be working with. There is no doubt these constraints have a practical purpose and are imposed only as an effect of knowledge, dedication, and discipline. The criteria by which Stourhead is managed has changed and, over the centuries, the way the different emphases have affected the look of the estate reflects our culture’s broader management of the pastoral.

The selection of the art and artists for Beauty and the Beast was determined by a mix of considerations, with some practical ones being who could I involve, what art I could obtain and how much would it cost. However, the primary motivation was to engage with the established classicism embodied at Stourhead. I identified there a number of evident themes such as nature, art, myth, religion, paradise, conversation and sensual indulgence. These elements that, to my mind, constitute the Stourhead “vernacular” combine in a curious, surreal experience, and one that has inspired the choices in the exhibition. The three-dimensional Lorrainian fantasy of the gardens is sustainable through all seasons but is almost uncontainable in springtime when in full bloom. From my contemporary perspective, Stourhead is a celebration of paradox on a grand scale. The work and its placement in the exhibition is intended to reference and respond to elements of Stourhead, and in so doing to draw out some of the contradictions inherent in its beauty. Conversely the proposition that Stourhead presents is imposing and as such rigorously challenges contemporary constructs and aesthetics. Perhaps I am being overly earnest in my appreciation of the garden’s potency but are the gardens whimsical and frivolous? They don’t strike me as being so even though their purpose may have been to show off and entertain the wealthy clients of the Hoare bank, a classical version of a round of golf perhaps. Jeremy Gilbert Rolfe in Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime proposes a theory that beauty is frivolous and should not be ideological, shouldn’t be associated with morality. In being free of these restraints beauty may become irresponsible and as such become subversive. Beauty in the fairy tale certainly defies convention. Beauty aligned to an ideology helps enable certain brands to market e.g. The Body Shop, Beauty without Cruelty overtly represents a choice aligned to belief. The temptation of the alternative hedonist doctrine is that it rids us of pain and guilt.  Is beauty exclusive to one set of values? Stourhead’s beauty can be separated from its contradictions and associates and appreciated without them which I am sure the uncritical visitor does as one can appreciate a magic trick without knowing how it’s done and as Cocteau invites us to do at the beginning of his film La Belle et La Bête. This uncluttered appreciation may be something to be achieved and envied but often it isn’t, as the pleasure is nostalgic and sentimental. The magician that reveals the process of a trick is often railed against for not sustaining fantasy, the illusion as if it were morally wrong.

Without paying too much homage to Jeremy Gilbert Rolfe he goes on to assert that art without beauty is about power, as is, to continue the metaphor, revealing a magician’s trick. But surely performing a trick of creating beauty, also exercises and displays power as both, the performance and revelation, require awareness.

Most people will have a judgement over whether something is or is not beautiful. Often the declaration of a thing’s beauty is expressed as an instinctive response, the subjective nature of the beauty. Consensus over what is deemed beautiful and what is deemed ugly informs art, architecture, fashion, music and body shape. There is a tradition in aesthetics to equate beauty with the good and the beast with the bad. This segregation is a survival mechanism and inherent in how we interact socially. This associated belief is illustrated in the sales pitch of a Miss World beauty contestant who declares interests that are virtuous, healthy and positive.

In Ugly an essay by Mary Deveraux, she examines our disregard for the ugly and advocates acknowledging its value and giving it some attention. Ugliness is associated with dysfunction, deformity and ill health and acts as a memento mori. Conversely, beauty is seen as healthy, a protection and distraction from our frail and temporary existence. With such instinctive survival assessments of beauty it is hard to separate it from ideologies. Beauty may be a function in its own right but does not follow that function is beautiful. It is the function that indicates the motive and the motive that expresses morals of the disregard from them. Obviously, ugliness does not automatically show a disregard for morals but it is often scapegoated for a predicament, a confusion of meaning, chaos generally. Ugliness is blamed, labeled and assigned as having an unhealthy absence of morals. The ugly has to strive harder and further to prove it is not immoral or criminal and has to be more resolute and thereby vulnerable in its struggle to be loved. 

A freak show services our curiosity, confronts our fears and often allows us to appreciate our lot. Cosmetic surgery cannot claim to provide natural beauty yet many people respond positively to the results achieved by a plastic surgeon and even more respond positively when they don’t know a person's look has been achieved with plastic surgery. But on knowing that the look is managed satisfies a vanity, a snobbery kicks in because it is seen as fake, a deception and unnatural, and the result is then sneered at. 

In Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête both Beauty and the Beast have to confront their fears and at different times, despite their fears, have to let go of what they hold precious. In the process of letting go they express love and as a result this is returned.

Sir Christopher Frayling in his commentary of the film recognises that by the end of the film when the beast transforms into a prince, released from a spell, there is a tinge of disappointment in the audience. The prince is not as exotic as the Beast. He is safe, predictable and conformist and the audience in seeing the struggles and motives of the beast now have affection for him. In Shrek the Dreamworks animation, this convention is delightfully switched when the beauty is revealed to be an ogre-like Shrek and the suitor Prince is shown as a selfish tyrant. 

The classic tale of Beauty and the Beast recognises that fear is tied up in assessing whether something is beautiful, safe, ugly or dangerous. Some believe that beauty is natural, that the harmony found in nature is beautiful and emulation by man of nature is a sure way to obtain the beautiful. Yet even harmonies and musical scales are man made human conventions. Our understanding of nature comes via man’s interpretation whether it is Newton, Turner or David Attenborough. Our perception of who we are changes, our understanding of how nature works changes. Our beliefs as to what constitutes ‘the positive’ changes and has changed radically since Stourhead came into existence. The thirteenth-century treatise Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean De Meun, in the chapter The Sermon of Genius expresses a still widely held sentiment which is that genius is expressed via nature and ‘if a man strives with all his might to preserve Nature, keeps himself from base thoughts and toils and struggles faithfully to be a true lover, let him go to paradise crowned with flowers’. In considering the awe-inspiring universe we find ourselves in, for some, perceiving beauty is positive feedback and evidence of an implicit order, proof of goodness in the chaos and as such provides meaning, releasing us from the terrific sublime. 

Artists frequently wish to champion the ugly under the premise that historically, that which was once perceived as beastly is now hailed as beautiful and revered. Often they are lead to the ugly by their sensibilities and not empirical information or advice. 

Terri Windling in his interpretation of the original Beauty and the Beast by Madame Le Prince De Beaumont points out ‘Beauty requires assurance again and again from a Good Fairy and magical dreams that loving the Beast is a good idea. This is an important change, for it alters the tone of the story from the symbolic to the psychological, making the power of perception (rather than obedience to good advice) the story’s theme.’ In the process of following their hearts the ugly can be mistakenly proclaimed as attractive for its apparent honesty, lack of contrivance and absence of design. Ironically when the adoption of the ugly is done knowingly we come full circle. Beauty is then hailed as the radical and the avant garage and the ugly is highly manipulated, self conscious and formulaic. This revolution is evident in language when, as in my nephew’s school, the word ‘sick’ has taken over from the word ‘wicked’ to describe something good. The philosopher Kant presents the idea that it is through reason and reflection that we come to appreciate art that once caused offense and was considered without merit. Reason is not likely in an environment where subjects are taboo, rules of process are rigid and fear informs our choices. Presenting the ugly can be a negative reaction, a criticism of circumstance. Duchamp’s ideas were in part a reaction against the commoditisation of art. Punk Rock was presented as a reaction to economic conditions, social constraints and bland music. But it does not follow that all presentations of the ugly are a protest, or that all protests are ugly.

Coincidentally shortly after I started work on Beauty and the Beast I was given to read Doubts and loves: what is left of Christianity by Richard Holloway in which he discusses how Christianity is perceived and whether it is still a meaningful faith. I couldn’t help but make comparisons with the discussion I was about to undertake. He examines in the light of scientific development and changes in our perceptions of the world around us, the Christian faith as an institution that holds passionate beliefs. He describes the nature of methodologies and paradigms and compares the scientific with religion. I offer it here as a comment that could apply to the ‘paradigms’ of the classical and the contemporary. 

‘These paradigms are not permanent and unalterable descriptions of reality. They work as long as they work or until they are challenged by anomalies they cannot explain. It is the persistence of unexplained anomalies that precipitates a scientific crisis. Sometimes the current paradigm can be used to solve the problem. Sometimes no solution can be found and the problem is put on hold till a solution comes along. But sometimes a new paradigm emerges that replaces the old one, by providing better solutions to current difficulties, and so the process continues. Crucially, the breakdown of old paradigms and the emergence of new ones is often assisted by social forces.’

The discussion, between the classical and the contemporary, needs to continue if progression is our goal. In the same way that the quantum world has yet to reconcile itself with the Newtonian world, contemporary art has yet to reconcile itself with classical art. Dogmatic and fundamental rejection of one construct over another occurred when change is resisted. Polarised opinions whether they are about art or war are held through belief and protected with conviction. Coming to terms with contemporary art for those ardent advocates of classical values is difficult. Its appearance and attitude may not be very welcoming. It appears to be the Beast that will kill Beauty rather than an honourable creature coming to terms with his nature and desires. Beauty’s jealous suitor, believing he is protecting Beauty, tries to kill the Beast and in doing so transforms the Beast into a prince. This analogy presupposes that classicism is the Beauty and contemporary art is the Beast but it may be that the reverse is true. I think I am safe in saying that this first supposition is generally held one and neither classicism nor the contemporary is comfortable in being cast in the role of jealous lover. 

‘This notion that there is no fixed truth out there is extremely difficult for people to accept. Their anxiety may have something to do with an ancient attitude to reality that has been around at least since Plato. This conviction that there is an ideal, perfect, translucent reality out there and that we should struggle to get our minds and wills to correspond to it’. This further quote from Richard Holloway surely expresses our current very human and heartfelt concerns. These concerns I believe are dealt with by the artists in the contemporary art exhibited. These apprehensions may originate from the same place as the deep unease about our place in the universe, dealt with by classical art. But classical values no longer correspond to the world, not to the world. Not to the world we are told there is or which we now can discover ourselves. For some, this is equivalent to the fall of mankind and as such see this opinion as a rallying cry to hold up the foundations of classicism and build the barricades. I am mindful here of how painting was declared dead and how as a painter I felt. I as the devoted disciple would go into the wilderness and prepare for the resurrection. When painting returned I didn’t recognise my messiah but it was without doubt painting. Oh fragile me, I am guilty.

Theories and discoveries of the past may well have presented beautiful ideas as truth but none held the whole truth and this again presupposed that the truth is inherently beautiful. The creative process involves selection and the criteria for the selection varies according to purpose but whatever the criteria it eliminates one set of possibilities over others and therefore it is exclusive. The skill of an artist can often be admired but the work produced may lack invention, imagination or observation, qualities often looked for in a work of art. In recent times artists have chosen to produce works that focus purely on technique, purely on emotion, purely on research or purely on material. The function is derived by the selection. The beauty of a flower is not solely on it’s shape, colour and scent but includes its function as host, food, source of chemicals and component in a huge chain of events. The beauty of a goblin shark or a blob fish and other extraordinary creatures discovered in the natural world make humans look positively bizarre. 

The cycle of appreciation for the wild and then the managed goes on and is influenced by numerous factors. The aesthetics of the natural world are heavily managed and reflect us in a profound sense. In the natural world very little is now not managed because of interests in survival, conservation, pollution, recreation, commerce and politics. 

I have adapted a recent comment on an advertising campaign for a brand of soap taken from a television review: ‘Have people had enough of trying to create the perfect? The Contemporary art campaign has been a marketing phenomenon, striking a chord with increasing numbers of people fed up with the unattainable images of beauty they’ve been sold by the giants.’

The advertising this refers to seeks to draw our attention to a different kind of beauty, an alternative to the glamorous perfection promoted by revivals and in doing so it rejects the perfect for the attainable, in the hope that this will appeal to women that feel unable to attain perfection and thereby sell more soap. It acknowledges other forms can be beautiful.

Inevitably the contemporary beast will be shot by a suitor, kissed by Beauty, and transformed into the establishment’s prince, the orthodox and the

un-exotic, who tries to hold onto Beauty as she is led duty-bound to the next unsuspecting beast. Added to this cycle is the father of Beauty who travels back with his gift, that sentimentally, nostalgically reminded him of Beauty, and in doing so inspired the beast to want to connect with that which he is not - Beauty. 

At the risk of being trite, the best marriages whether it is man and wife or the Classic and the Contemporary are when the partners accept each other’s failings and weaknesses but don’t indulge in the bullshit. Having accepted each other’s nature they then rely on each other and with the bond between them they get to know each other. A one-night stand does not provide the same knowledge.

In working with the Holbath Gallery to present an exhibition of contemporary art, The National Trust shows vitality and confidence. When a host invites criticism and challenge, it is possibly displaying a vanity but probably revealing a tolerance, generosity of spirit and a willingness to learn. Hosting such an exhibition shows an understanding of the functions of heritage, including that of a source of inspiration. I hope that I have chosen contemporary art that surprises, engages and becomes referred to in people’s understanding and appreciation of Stourhead. The appreciation of contemporary art and the artists will follow from this. 

I hope you enjoy the conversation and the walk and that you visit Stourhead, classicism and contemporary art again.