Art for Effective Goodness: A Historical Perspective and Case Study

The motivation for this research is to address a major problem in the world of visual arts, with a thundering vibration of mixed and confusing signals, and evaluate the difference between "art" and its opposite, the "personart." Being an architect and a painter for over half a century, I sense humanity is begging for an answer for a simple question: ?What is art and what is not art?? The answer to this question was clear during the grand humanistic era of the ancient Achaemenid Empire. "Effective Goodness" was the ONLY value and meaning then. For years since, tastemakers have taken advantage of a prevailing ambiguity. Artfully, they have influenced the minds of the naïve for profit making. They successfully have brainwashed the public, depriving them of the ability to choose freely. As a result, a serious debate of the status of a major controversy has ensued. Recently, Apsden [FT, WEF 2015], notes: "There have been enormous changes in the ecology of the art world in the last 20 years?.? [Apsde is right, except for the fact that 20 years is a gross underestimation.] On the one hand, consider the great Hellenic philosopher Socrates view ??meanings cannot be understood without the knowledge of their opposites. On the other hand, Bertold Brecht?s insight that ?Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.? Its resonance is strong, indeed. In balance, art is mastery in a craft (e.g., painting) that reflects universal values and beautifies life. That is the "creation" that is "art," and a hammer with which to shape the reality for the good, sanguine. THE contradictory to art is the ?personart,? any kind of production, merely a limited expression of the mind of a person, a group or a specific ideology, lacking mastery and void of universality. They are the "personarts," a mirror held to a limited reality, far from being an art. I propose: ?art is only that form of creation that in harmony with universal value emanate positive energy and beautifies life, otherwise it is a ?personart?.? [Khavarani, 2013] Data abundant. I analyze numerous ?personarts,? from a variety of sources, amassed for years.