Arquitetura do Horror

...

and sound emerges as a result.

Here, the empty indeterminacy, as the nonentity of all design, has dissolved already from the

yet undifferentiated abyss of design possibilities the reality and determination of

form color, sound, imagination has already

evolved. However, having, its end in this very certainty, another form of

ugliness is generated by the fixation on its bare identity. Initialy, we find

appreciation in such a coherent impression, since unity and purity, especially

if combined with energy, have a pleasing aspect. However, if abstract unity

persists, ir becomes ugly and intolerable through its lack of differentiation. Goethe’s

assertion on life, thas nothing is less bearable than a series of goog days, also

applies to aesthetics. That kind of purism, which lacks internal differentiation

and which only distinguishes itself from the nothiness of external formlessness,

such repetitive purism of a form, a color, a sound or an idea becomes ugly,

if not intoletable. Green is a beautiful color, but only green, without the

blue sky abover, without glittering water between, without a white flock

of sheep on top, without a red-tiled roof peering through the trees, becomes boring.

Le parti des ennynes in Paris was delighted in 1830, when the skirmish fire and roar

of guns disrupted the monotony of ceaseless traffic on the boulevards. But when

the battle continued on the second day, and when there seemed to be no end to the

shooting on the third day, hardly distracted they exclaimed: "oh, que est ennuyant!"

Unity as a mere unity becomes ugly because internal distinction is inherent to the

notion of true unity. Therefore, a design can in itself constrast unty with difference of its dissolution. It can, in one

direction, but also as a design, dissolve and vanish. Such a dissolution can be very beautiful,

since it associated with the process of becoming in the process of decaying, and thus with a differentiation, regardless

of whether this differentiation leads to nonentity. The appeal of this process consists in the very fact that simultaneously

with form there exists the becoming of formlessness, the pure transition into someting else. Imagine a mountain range of crowns covered in

forests and dawning dreamily rain to the scent of distance. Imagine the mist of a heavy

rain, with the spraying, solattering spume of the hurricane, dashing into the

air with furious cheer; here the formation of a waterspout, which begins to pour down befor

having fully formed, is beautiful. Or imagine a monotonous sound that gradually

fades away; ths fading is beautiful. In comparison with the meagerness of persistent sameness

any kind o dynamic, even that of decay, is beautiful. However, what is beautiful in such

a way turns ugly if dissolution occurs where is should not be,where we in fact expect

determination and completion of the design, where the design, instead of gaining from such self dissolution, becomes disturbed, washed-out,

and pale. This gives way to what we call in art the nebulous and the undulating, the lack of determination, of distinction, right

where they should be. In epic and dramatic poetry, the same notion occurs as aimlessmess, in music we employ the euphemistic

expression of the wild; that is to say, that the wil can as well become beautiful, which is the casa

with the polonaise. As criticism, however, it denotes formlessness. Unsteadiness an

uncertainty of boundary contradict the notion of form, and this contradiction is ugly.

Often, complacency and weakness hide behind such loose forms and mere indications of

out- lines. These soft and amorphous forms shall not be mistaken for the sketch.

The true sketch is the first design toward execution. It is not yet satisfying, due to the

missing execution, but in its prepating lineaments, it can, like the freehand sketches of grat painters an sculptors, give us a complete

sense of its potential beauty. In the epistolaty novella the collector and his circle, Goethe evaluated and distinguished

all perspective diferences with grat acunteness.

The nebulous is not the pleasant scent in which a form can wrap itself; undulating is not

the soft sinuious line in which a form can blur, not the tinting in which a sound can float. On the constraty, it is the faintness of boundary where

a definite boundary would be necessary; the ambiguity of difference where difference should appear; the incomprehensibility of expression where expression

should be highlighted. In sculpture and painting, primarily symbols and allegories attract such mistreatment. And ever with the best intention,

artists often cannot achieve a characteristic determination if they are to represent something

as abstract as la patrie, la France, le cholera morbus, Paris, nd the like. In such cases, we

shall be content if they at least provide us with a beautiful female figure. For some time,

the altere dusseldorfer malerschule suffered from such formlessness because of the misconception

regarding the difference between the pictoral