On Ugliness

"Concepts of beauty and ugliness are relative to various historical periods or various cultures and, to quote Xenophanes of Colophon (according to Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V, 110), 'But had the oxen or the lions hands, or could with hands depict a work like men, were beasts to draw the semblance of the gods, the horses would them like to horses sketch, to oxen, oxen, and their bodies make of such a shape as to themselves belongs'." Italian medievalist, philosopher, academic, literary critic and novelist (The Name of the Rose) Umberto Eco is an intellectual (with over thirty Honorary Doctorates from universities throughout the world) who knows a thing or two about aesthetics and semiotics. His study On Ugliness (tr. by Alastair McEwen, 2007) (STORIA DELLA BRUTTEZZA) is the fascinating, visually stunning companion to his earlier, highly-acclaimed History of Beauty (tr. by Alastair McEwen, 2004) (STORIA DELLA BELLEZZA). Eco reasons in his historical and cultural treatise on ugliness that although the concept of ugliness has been defined as the opposite of beauty, it is necessary to first examine the context between the viewer and artist to define ugliness. Eco reveals, using the Eiffel Tower for instance, there is sometimes a fine line between beauty and ugliness. In compelling chapters examining such subjects as industrial ugliness, the tacky and the kitsch, contemporary culture, images of Christ and Satan, witchcraft, torture, martyrs, hermits, African ritual masks, lunar births, disemboweled corpses, monsters, carnival freaks, Decadentism, and vice, Eco's eclectic study juxtaposes more than 300 color images with his own insights on ugliness along with quotations from other writers and philosophers of the day. On Ugliness will appeal to anyone with an interest in the avant-garde or the grotesque as they manifest in art, culture, and literature. On Ugliness is highly recommended (I find it nearly impossible to put this book down), with the caveat that the History of Beauty and On Ugliness have been published in a single combined set: History of Beauty and On Ugliness Boxed Set: Boxed Set Edition. G. Merritt

THIS BOOK SEES ART FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW TAKING A DISTANCE FROM DECORATION AND BEAUTY AND HELPING US REACH MORE PROFOUND LEVELS IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF AESTHETICS

I was a little worried this book might be really dry and difficult to read but it has been enjoyable and interesting so far. I decided to buy Umberto Eco's Beauty book too.

'One man's trash is another man's treasure' might be a apt conclusion after spending the significant amount of time required to digest Umberto Eco's semiotic approach to 'ugly'. Eco's brilliance as an author is well accepted, yet his informed academic investigation (upon which many of his own novels are based) is only now being appreciated. It is difficult to read ON UGLINESS as a treatise, so lush and provocative is his prose style. Rizzoli International spared no expense on supplying Eco with images and design of this art treasure, and the result is a volume about art history and our manifold perceptions of the signs and symbols that through time have defined 'ugly' versus 'beauty.' Eco wisely uses the chronological approach to his discourse on the semiotics of ugliness. After a superb Introduction in which he suggests the response of an alien visiting our planet, trying to determine what our civilization labeled beautiful (!), Eco launches into his presentation with gusto. He presents chapters on ugliness in the Classical World, religious use of ugliness (passion, death, martyrdom, apocalypse, hell), monsters, witchcraft, sadism, 'obscene pornography', the appearance of ugliness in architecture and industrial buildings, and finally the transition of the 'ugly' in the popular kitsch and camp. Coupled with the fascinating written words by the author are copious reproductions of paintings, details of images (some of the details of Bosch's complex canvases are amazingly clear), by both well known painters and unknown painters, displayed with short excerpts from writers who wrote on the subject of the ugly versus the beautiful. Eco brings us to the absolute present (punk art, Cindy Sherman, current film, etc) and as his images emerge from the book's pages, so does his commentary quicken. And so we are left with a book on the subject of Ugliness, which as an art volume is quite the opposite: this is a very beautiful and informed new art book. Highly recommended reading and viewing. Grady Harp, November 07

Since I am only a hundred-some pages into this book I hope you'll forgive the premature nature of this review, but thus far Eco's latest work has been so movingly fascinating that I wanted to step up and urge anyone who might be considering buying and reading it to go ahead and do so. Initially I had reservations about beginning it but have no regrets that I did. Although it should become apparent early on that this is honestly less a companion volume to History of Beauty than it has been touted to be, this study of perception, beauty, and above all beauty's often more charismatic twin, ugliness, takes on the entire sweep of history and makes an investigation of the output of some of the biggest names in western art and literature. Why are, say, Goya's more gruesome works his most enjoyable? What makes villains the best characters in fiction (and life)? Why does the repugnant occur so frequently as a theme in art, music, literature and even in everyday fashion? Most of all, why is one object or individual deemed "ugly" and another not? Less (at least thus far) an indictment of the cult of beauty which seems inextricably bound up in human affairs and more an exhaustive investigation that intelligently asks numerous questions from many angles, Eco's challenge here is to compel each of us to contemplate the nature of perception itself. I have loved what I've read so far and can't wait to read the rest.