In pursuit of elegance

The author has chosen a wide range of elements to define what, in his opinion is elegance. Again, we face predefined rules or criteria to make a definition which changes from place to place, from people to people. The author has characterized elegance by four key elements—seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability.

Without trying to behave as a permanent skeptical critic, I would like to define elegance based on two main categories shape/appearance and content. Depending on the definition that people of various countries have for elegance, the shape/appearance category seems to be the basic criteria for defining elegance which again changes from place to place. For example in central African countries the very long neck of a woman is considered the best of elegance and beauty while for the rest of the world that could be for sure not a genuine concept of elegance, even could be called an anomaly. Or the very small feet of Japanese women, not considered as an element of elegance in Europe or other parts of Western Europe, the robust/fat body of males considered as elegant in pacific islands, certainly not considered as such in the other parts of the world. By these examples, I wanted to state that if for the author, one of the key elements to characterize elegance is for instance symmetry, this element is not well appreciated or supported by various people and cultures of the world.

The other category that I wanted to emphasize with regard to the elegance is the content. While shape/appearance has been (and probably) always be the fasted way to define elegance, because it is eye catching, the category of content needs much more time, concentration and thinking about it. For some populations the definition of elegance regarding human beings is related to the way she/he behaves, speaks, walks, smiles or even eats. This person who in shape/appearance can be fat, short in plain language unattractive, in his/her content for people that study this category to define elegance, could be a very elegant person. The opposite of that, a very good looking person, who falls under the four categories defined by the author, but has an empty content, could be defined as not elegant.

In my opinion, the category of content should be considered even in defining what is elegant with regard to fine arts such as painting or sculptures. The classical painting or sculptures are easy to be defined with their regular lines and shapes, what about the modern art such as abstract paintings and sculptures that at first glance give the impression of a bunch of dots and irregular lines or gathering of stones in a chaotic way, such as in the abstract sculptures. Regarding the latter one, you need time to think and concentrate and define elegance based on your perception pertinent to the content or the hidden meaning of those painting and sculptures.