Kitsch Art as an imitation of reality

Plato believes there to be a hierarchy of loves.

3.) The love of a woman by a man
2.) The love of a young boy by a teacher
1.) The love of the Forms.

If love of the Forms is the highest of the three loves then where does "the love of art" fit into this picture? A painting is not a woman, or a young boy and so it seems it must fall under (3) the final category. But a painting or, or indeed a sculpture or a photograph is in a sense a portrait of something material, something corporeal. Now the material world according to Plato is only an imitation of the Forms, those perfect objects that exist in the Platonic ether; the perfect chair, the perfect number 5, the perfect goose etc.

If one strives then to paint "the perfect chair" can one really rival the glory of the Form in all its celestial grandeur? If it is the case that art can never live up to the reality of existence and to the beauty of the actual then art must strive for something other than imitation. Art must strive for the novel, the fresh and the challenging.

Fine art