On the Aesthetics of Destruction

Destruction is the first type of art

The end of contemplation (1927; Paris, France) by Rene Magritte.

The basic principle by which anything a human does is considered artistic is that it reveals the will of the maker in the material he or she creates. We see that the greatest artworks are those that most clearly disclose the artist’s wild will, and a considerable number of people regard natural scenes as a manifestation of God’s will and as evidence of His existence, as in Kierkegaard’s aesthetic stance in his philosophical trajectory. Yet the works most neglected are those that reveal the will to destroy; it is true that scenes of destruction may wound the heart, yet they are clearly capable of moving the viewer profoundly. Construction, though it may seem harder in terms of wealth and labor, destruction requires only pure will; destruction is easier to execute, and if we regard art as an expression of will, we may understand destruction as a pure form of art, albeit more artistically costly since it is merely will, it is not bounded with tools or materials. This is what the Dadaists, Surrealists, James Joyce and T. S. Eliot in his Waste Land perceived. War is an artistic act, like any work by Turner or Michelangelo, but it resembles more a precisely executed brushstroke by Jackson Pollock. Whether one views its effect from the sky or from the earth, ruins are just pure art, and even if destruction is performed chaotically, it targets specific points where armies clash or where infrastructure -human or material, is destroyed. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, by contrast, are the supreme manifestation of the beauty of nature, a manifestation of the beauty of God’s creation and His will in fulfilling His promise to discipline the disobedient. Hurricanes and earthquakes arise from the deepest depths of nature; just as humans built cities around rivers and oases, and on fortified hills, wars have moved around them, the points where earthquakes appear and volcanoes erupt originate from the deepest depths of the earth, and their destruction is broader and deeper, while at the same time revealing their majesty, which helps explain why humans have perceived God and His great power in it.