Ugly: The Aesthetics of Everything

by Stephen Bayley

Is ugliness only skin-deep, or can something that is beautifully engineered--a B52 bomber or a Colt .45--also be ugly, if its function is to kill or to maim? What was "Degenerate Art" and why was it deemed such? Why are mountains seen as sublime expression of nature, when only two hundred years ago they were regarded as loathsome things to be avoided at all costs? Just what is the relation, if any, between tattoos and crime? And lastly, if there were no ugliness in the world, would there be any beauty? Stephen Bayley, in his singular and at times tongue-in-cheek style, questions and explains the aesthetics of everything.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Design, Philosophy, Art History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2012

Reviews

[Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather unusual book, but one that fearlessly digs into what can and should be defined as "ugly" without actually telling us how to define "ugly" itself. It includes a lot of photographs. Some depict scenes from the past that were considered "ugly," and others suggest some images that could be considered "ugly" today including some animal faces and interstate highways. Obviously not everyone would agree, and the reader is reminded of the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" which, of course, tells us that there is and always will be some debate over what is actually "ugly." This book is certainly worthwhile reading but by the time you're finished you may not know any more about "ugly" than you did before.

[Karla Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ch. Perfection, or No Dirt and Mess in Heaven

Frankenstien, 1954 Glockler Porche, Leonardo D. art, pigs, & Manchester of the industrial revolution.

Books mentioned:

~Conditions of the working class in England

~ Seven American Utopias: The Architecture of Communitarian Socialism

~Renaissance und Barock By Heinrich Wolfflin

Ch. 2 Ugly Science, or Good Maths, Bad Results

Palladio's proportions, Pythagorean Musicians, colt 45 gun, "broom-handle Mauser" M1919 Machine gun, a vickers machine gun, the B-52 (AKA BUFF for Big Ugly Fat Fucker), snub-nosed monkey, and pig.

"Beauty might lie in the concepts rather than the appearances"

Books Mentioned:

~ Mary Shelley's Frankenstien (1818)

~Le Modulor (1948)

Ch. 3 Manners, or the ugly customer

Piotr Bernatowicz, polish buildings/language, Helen of Troy, Quentin Massys' 1513 portrait of Margaret of Austria, Oliver Cromwell's warts, Gargoyles (ancient greece and in Jazz Age Manhattan, London Building Act, Voldemort aka he who must not be named, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon,

"There is no such thing as an ugly woman, only a lack of vodka"- old polish jokey joke

"Style is the feather that makes the arrow fly straight, not the feather you put in your cap" an old saying.

"Short people got no reason to live"

Is ugliness more than skin deep?

Ch 4 Heaven and Hell, or cleanliness, godliness, and their opposites.

Witch trials, Gustave Dore, Hieronymous Bosch, Matthias Grunewald, St Anthony, ergotism, William Blake, Albion Mill, John Ruskin, Bernd and Hilla Beacher Water Towers, and Andreas Gursky Atlanta color print.

Books Mentioned:

William S Burroughs novel Queer (1985)

English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit 1850-1980

Maria Louise Rame aka Ouida novels Strathmore (1865) and Moths (1880)

Anonymous Structures: A Typology of Technical Construction (1970)

Ch. 5 When Nature is Ugly, or Monument Valley and I-35

Architect Viollet-le-duc, Petrarch climbing Mont Ventoux, Jakob Burckhardt, poet John Milton, poet John Dennis, Painter John Constable, Bartholomew Fair, Star-nosed mole, sea cow, Royal horticultural society, Amorphophallus Titanum aka corpse flower, Elephants trunk plant, Stinky squid mushroom plant.

Ch 6 Kitsch, or the Intoxication of bad taste

Modern Movement, John Henry Belter Furniture, Marshall Field or Sears Roebuck Mail- order catalogue, Kitsch, glass paper weight craze, Pietro Bigaglia, Pteridomania/fern collecting craze, Wardian Cases, Barnum and Bailey's circus/Freaks of nature, Passage Choiseul, Passage Jouffroy, 1851 Great Exhibition in London, Joseph Paxton's "Christal Palace", wiener werkstatte or Vienna workshop, Bon Marche, Morris Lapidus's Fontainebleau, Mad King Ludwig,

Books Mentioned:

On the growth of plants in closely glazed cases by Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward

Gillo Dorfles book Kitsch and Anthology of bad taste

Andy Warhol Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Jane and Michael Stern Encyclopedia of Bad Taste

Ch 7

~Cleanliness/Landfills and Jesus/Hell

~Journey to Kars (1984) by Philip Glazebrook

**idea of utopia (meaning no place) we owe to Thomas More, dystopia (less attractive) John Stuart Mill, Cacotopia (all is bad) we owe Jeremy Bentham..

~Long dark tunnels: 1862 London trial Tube is built

~industry pollution: soot, smell of hot oil, deafening noise of cog-wheels

~Modern Architecture like the Eiffel Tower was seen as ugly

~Hwys aka the beautiful interstate 35 and American biz ex: Dairy Queens, water slides, flea markets, and Cinema 1,2,3,4,5….

“This is America, and that’s freedom for you—freedom to make things look like shit, but freedom nonetheless.”

~Abandoned Kmart/bulldozers “anti-aesthetics” or “pro-ugliness”

Books Mentioned:

Wastelands Map Amsterdam: Guide to the Empty Sites of Amsterdam and Ruins in the Netherlands by Lara Almarcegui.

Ch8. What’s Wrong with Beauty, or Unnatural Selection

It is important to separate the idea of the freak, or accident of nature, with the idea of the ugliness.

Physical deformation may be unpleasant the lacks the deliberate expressive intention of ugliness.

~The problem with hair: Hypertrichosis was the medical origin of the ape woman. Today shaving, plucking, epilation, depilation, electrolysis and laser removal replaced medieval fear.

~Joseph Goebbels aka Hitler’s propaganda bro, had 3 anti-Semitic film projects. The films presented an ideal of “Aryan” beauty: Muscular blondes strut in Vallhalla, Teutonic maidens synchronize their biceps. The Jewish films by contrast presented cartoon stereotypes of the hairy, furrowed, drooling, sleezy, grasping, hook-nosed, semite-rapists.

~WWII America printed posters with a bespectacled, pointy headed, dribbling profile of a chinless German. A Decca record was also titled “We’re gonna have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap”

Typically employers preferred beautiful people and economists Markus Mobius and Tanya Rosenblat say the beauty premium works three ways:

Beautiful workers are more confident and thus has a self-fulfilling effect.

For a given level of skill, the beautiful worker is more highly regarded.

At a similar level of confidence, the beautiful workers have interpersonal skills in conversation and manners that often lead to higher pay

Surgical procedures on adult Down Syndrome patients are familiar, but less controversial than those on children.

PUNK 1976: Body perforations, vomiting, pockmarks, acne, bad posture, stuttering, disability, and tattoos (degenerate/criminal).

Ch 9 Form Follows Feeling, or the Tropes don’t work

~Modernism was meant to be a cure for the ills of industrial uglification.

~Parasites and disease: influenza and Graves disease (art was also a disease)

**Architects were overall more optimistic than painters. And more committed to the pursuit of beauty and the eradication of ugliness

~Books mentioned:

Household Gods: The British and their possessions.

Great expectations by Dickens

Robert Venturi’s book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

~Chamber of horrors at the museum of ornamental art (the victoria and albert museum) in london. It opened in 1852 and committed to instructing both consumers and manufacturers on “the correct principles of taste”

~Pazaurek determined that there were five categories of error that could lead to ugliness: Material mistakes, Design mistakes, Decorative mistakes, Kitsch Mistake and Contemporary mistakes.

~Raw concrete is described as brutalism which intended to make the whole conception of the building plain and comprehensible.

~ Post Modernism apotheosized “interesting architecture” aka featurism and freakish effects. Ex: Terry Farrell’s bird like “features” on london’s doomed TV-AM building

~Gordon Bunshaft brought Le Corbusier’s architectural language to corporate America.

~Snow white’s coffin radio (1956) injecting art into commerce

Ch. 10 Advertising, or Ugliness sells badly

~George Lois saw himself as an artist, a critic, and social commentator.

~Andy Warhol began his career as an art director in an ad agency

~BMW 7 Series was launched in 2001 and it was almost universally condemned as ugly

~Karl Marx best represents the arguments about perplexing relationships of art, industry, and nature. Marx own being was covered in ugly boils and carbuncles. “that while a rich man may be ugly, he can be redeemed by acquiring beauty-is a perfect glass on consumerism.

~perception of a bicycle as beautiful as beautiful, as opposed to a rude product of industry.

~Raymond Lowry turned ugly industrial products into swans. Wrote book Never Leave Well Enough Alone. Redesigned Lucky Strike cig packaging and advertising in 1940.

Other book mentioned: The Principles of Scientific Management

Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorkers Art Critic, “Beauty is, or ought to be, no big deal, but the lack of it is”

Last sentence of bewk…Ugliness really is a big deal. But, then, if everything were beautiful…nothing would be.

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastically visual arts book full of discussion and pictures ranging from aircraft to architecture, product design and human freaks of nature. For anyone with an interest in aesthetics in all its rawness, give this book a go! If not, it looks good on your coffee table as it's cover features Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of earthly delights! At least you'll look intelligent when the neighbours pop in!!

[Am Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

A discussion of what "ugly" means, drawing examples from art, architecture, advertising, products, etc, through the ages. That discussion ultimately goes nowhere, and the book mostly ends up just being a collection and showcase of things people have regarded as being "ugly". Overall not very interesting or engaging.

[Amni Yusoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bayley has some important things to say about ugliness and its broader context in the world, but his execution felt lacklustre. There were times when it was positively torturous reading his prose, with its relentless name dropping and references. It made his thoughts hard to follow.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the discussion of the history of "ugly" including landscapes, decoration, and kitsch. Great pictures, with many more suggested for the googling.

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A general overview of the history of what constitutes “ugliness,” “beauty,” and “taste.” Stunning accompanying visuals. Excited about how vast our definitions of these concepts can be and the artistic integrity in defending those that resonate with us as well as the ideological courage in proposing seemingly disagreeable definitions.

[Chandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bayley raises a great question: What exactly *is* ugly? Very light-hearted yet serious treatment of the subject throughout.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Innovative with great efforts to understand ugly or rather different types of "beautiful".

[Zoran Zelenika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good subject and a well written book. Slightly hampered though by the design choices that make reading a permanent game of bouncing around the page to pick up all the bits of data scattered between big images, captions and the actual text body.