Phenomenology of Love and Its Language in Modern Art: Considerations Inspired by Insights from Władysław Stróżewski and Joseph Ratzinger—Benedict XVI

Rafał SOLEWSKI

Katedra Nauk o Sztuce, Wydział Sztuki, Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. KEN w Krakowie, ul. Mazowiecka 43, 30-019 Kraków, Poland , Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9631-9275

Abstract

In the introductory part of the paper the author formulates a tentative definition of love and points to the relationship obtaining between love and beauty, as described by Władysław Stróżewski and Joseph Ratzinger—Benedict XVI. What follows is an analysis of art works by Adrian Gottlieb, Bernhard Prinz, Olafur Eliasson, James Turell, Stan Brakhage, and Joanie Landau based on insights from the mentioned thinkers. The ‘love’ present in art is firstly interpreted as desire, also as desire for the good, then as all-enveloping and permeating power, a gift and the act of its acceptance, and finally as the descending Word. The description of the language used by the artists in question involves a reference to the underlying poetic quality of their work which manifests an aesthetically relevant value. The author observes that artists tend to make recourse to direct language and postulates that the aesthetic categories and poetic devices used in the interpretation of art works be considered as flexible language rules which ultimately serve conveyance of beauty in art, the latter ultimately deriving from love.

Keywords:

love, the good, the light, cognition, contemporary art, Władysław Stróżewski, Joseph Ratzinger—Benedict XVI