A THREE-STEP PROGRAMME: DIVINE INSPIRATION, A HIGHER REALITY, AND A BUCKET ON ONE’S HEAD OR PLATO, HEGEL, ĀBOLS, ZITMANIS AND OTHER TRUTH-SEEKERS
Alise Tīfentāle
Plato maintained that art only imitates forms, which, in their turn, are poor copies of a perfect idea. On the other hand, an artist, with the aid of divine (or demonic) inspiration, can create a better copy of the truth than that which we see in the world of things. And that makes the artist a kind of inspired prophet. In consequence, art is dangerous: poets and dramatists must be driven out of the ideal state, and music and painting must be censored in order to protect the citizens of the ideal society. Are Otto's paintings a better copy than tangible reality? At least, there's nothing like that in real life (and a good thing too!): the things going on in the artist's head are materialised in his painting, and, in subjective terms, this is more truthful than that what's going on outside. Should anyone be protected from Otto's painting? It all depends on the viewer's sense of humour. Who said truth had to be serious?
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