If the purpose of Art is to create beauty, then the basic thing an artist is expected to possess -and thus exhibit- at the very least is good taste. This isn’t always the case, however...
It was one of my major artistic disappointments in 2012. After seeing “Monster” a few years ago, Charlize Theron had instantly become one of my favorite actresses (along with Sissy Spacek, Hilary Swank and Cate Blanchett). Above all, she seemed like a cultured person with high aesthetic standards. I even wrote an article in a major Greek newspaper stating, jokingly, that our government ought to offer her a position as the head of the ministry of culture!
All this until March 2012, when I saw a video clip containing her acceptance speech after receiving an award for activities concerning human rights. The cheap –if not trashy- prologue to her speech was the very definition of absolute lack of aesthetics. And this time, unfortunately, she wasn’t just playing Aileen Wuornos –in which case the pretended disgusting attitude was presumably one of the reasons for her being awarded an Oscar– but she represented her true self (at any rate, as true a self as an actor may exhibit in a public presentation...). So, I said to myself, was this the actress I had so much admired and publicly praised for so long?
Watch the video and judge for yourselves:
