Art In The Masses

"In art there is only one thing that counts; the thing you can't explain." - Georges Braque

Welcome to Art In The Masses, a literary journal consisting of various articles, philosophies, and prose, either revolving around or composed of art:

that which is known as the highest form of hope.

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On the ‘Conflict’ of Plural Worldviews

“Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt” -- Immanuel Kant In this paper, I will defend that Kant’s theory of aesthetics illustrates a more advantageous baseline for defining political judgement in a democratic liberal society than Kant’s theory of morality. In his Third Critique, Kant

Emerson Sayde

2 days ago7 min read

'A Brooding Omnipresence in the Skies'

" The whole body of law is permeated by two recurring standards of decision: fault and intent." -- Lon Fuller In this paper, I will defend Lon Fuller’s account of the 1949 postwar Grudge Informer case and the natural law conception of the vitality of moral consideration in the legal sphere. According to Lon Fuller, there is no neutral way to identify law without interpreting it. In every place that Fuller’s antithesis, H.L.A. Hart, argues for the separation of law and

Emerson Sayde

Feb 168 min read

Aquinas’s Defense of Antigone’s Kreon

“Oh, it is hard to give in! But it is worse to risk everything for stubborn pride.” In this paper, I will defend King Kreon’s decree in Sophocles’s Antigone using principles derived from Aquinas’s natural law theory. According to Aquinas, law is an exercise of public personage by a sovereign who cares for all people of his state. As an instance of divergence from positive and divine law particular to a case of treachery, Kreon’s law was protective of natural law’s end towar

Emerson Sayde

Dec 26, 20254 min read

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piece of the month

The Card Players

Paul Cézanne

c. 1890 - 96

With composition derived from original and unique figure studies and a determination to steady the street paved by the heartened influences of Carravagio, Cezanne undertook a five piece series aimed at capturing the non-dramatic moments of leisure and focus. Following the romantic period, such emphasis on form and structure gained reach over insistence on dramatic social or religious messaging.

The monumental, timeless depictions of regular social spaces are an accolade to a widely cherished feature of European social culture recognizable to all who travel - gezelligheid as coined by the Dutch, claims the act of social loitering, abhängen in Germany, flânerie in France. This simple term is the draw of European nations for so many hurried citizens of utilitarian livestyles. Unlike the U.S., Europeans have a social safety net built-in, the same we search for in career status, monetary gain, and barren accomplishment.

Abandoning the preeminence of climactic subtext within European contemporary artwork, artists like Cézanne shifted the focus towards the divinity within everyday life. Although this period is often regarded as void of meaningful subject matter, there is a respectability in realist studies of non-thematic narratives during this still-life era.