Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 85 No. 4, 2015.
Original scientific paper
Art as a Humanizing Agent. Anthropology in Rajmund Kupareo’s Aesthetic Thought
Ivan Dodlek
orcid.org/0000-0002-6394-9577
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The works of Plessner and Gehlen, eminent thinkers in the field of philosophical anthropology, show that philosophy should concern itself with the spiritual part of the human being, which builds the foundations for personal and interpersonal activity and thus gives purpose to the human person’s existence and enables his/her self-understanding. Philosophy should therefore concern itself with the possibility of permanent humanization. One of the most significant 20th century Croatian artists and thinkers, Rajmund Kupareo (1914 – 1996), concerned himself exactly with the abovementioned topic and gave, in his philosophical and aesthetic deliberations, a new and original contribution to the understanding of the phenomenon of art as a particular spiritual activity ensuring the human being a better understanding of reality and his/ her own survival in it. Since deep human reality is hidden in it, art is for Kupareo – in the spirit of Aristotelian-Thomistic realism – a specific human value. As a means of studying a being in terms of what is beautiful in it, art is a value that – through concrete artistic symbols resulting from artistic transformation – indicates perfection of a being. As any other value, due to its content, it permanently attracts and continues to perfect a particular subject. The purpose of art is therefore to – by artistically embodying the vital, personal, interpersonal and suprapersonal values – enable the human being to transcend reality again and again trying to find a deeper, metaphysical meaning of reality in order to enrich himself and fi nd new and unique ways to raise his spirit beyond everyday concerns and thus enjoy artistic elation and permanent joy of transformation. In this sense – as shown by Kupareo – art is an authentic human activity that transforms the human being enspiritualizing him for the purpose of further perfection and complete realization in line with himself/herself, his/her closest ones,nature and, finally, the Supreme Being. Humanization of this kind – realized through artistic creation – requires constant effort and activity of the spirit, which is not simple but which is, for the human being, the only way to discover how to become human.
Keywords
Rajmund Kupareo; human being and values; beautiful; artistic transfiguration; artistic elation; humanization
Hrčak ID:
151373
URI
Publication date:
18.1.2016.
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