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Arts & Culture

The Aesthetics of Ugliness and the Boundaries of Artistic Value

Quick fact

Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle considered ugliness a failure of form, but by the 20th century, movements like Dada and expressionism elevated ugliness to a central artistic value, showing how the boundaries of art are continually redrawn.

Why this is interesting

We often think art should be beautiful, but some of the most celebrated artworks are deliberately ugly. Why are we drawn to the repulsive?