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Boyd White . Aesthetics Primer. New York: Peter Lang, (2009). 161 pp. Paper: US$18.95. (ISBN 978-1-4331-0290-5).
Perhaps it is true to say that beauty has had a bit of a rough ride in western culture over the last few decades. Beauty, as critics tell us, is that quality which seduces our gaze in the art of selling. "Beauty" encourages our youth to adopt an emaciated chic. Beauty is that which we learn to prefer as a quality giving pleasure in appearances but which is largely the cultured preference of a rich or noble elite. And yet, given these excesses and self-interested standards, who among us would not like to have some beauty in life, whether it is in the potted geranium on the window ledge, a view of trees in a park, or a treasured painting on the living room wall. Beauty has its pitfalls but as Plato famously remarked, "Beauty is the only quality we love by instinct." Not all instances of beauty are cases of persuasion, or the rich person's fancy. Perhaps it is also true to say that in the lives of many people beauty still has a valued place, and across the world and its varied cultures and arts, beauty thrives. Not only that, it is possible to point to a growing list of new books on beauty and art exhibitions showing the renewed interest by academics and artists in the subject. Important as it may be for academics to deconstruct standards of taste, aesthetics has a continuing role in education and life, as Boyd White, a well known Canadian art educator, and past editor of the Canadian Review of Art Education, ably reminds us in this densely packed book.
Actually, for the reviewer this is not an easy book to discuss. It is so rich in resource material and information that it defies easy summary. Also the arguments are sufficiently sophisticated as to represent a plethora of opportunities for learning. It was interesting for me, given the gaps in my knowledge, to say repeatedly, ah, so that is where this all started, and ah, that is what is meant by such a concept, or simply to engage with many new ideas.
White's book is a crisply annotated and well-referenced...