What I've Been Reading: The Beauty of Everyday Things
- haleyindorato
- Dec 2, 2023
- 3 min read
A brief summary of the essay, "The Beauty of Miscellaneous Things," by Soetsu Yanagi and how it relates to my work. Featured in the December 2023 newsletter.
When I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I picked up a book called, “The Beauty of Everyday Things.” It's a collection of writings by Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961), a Japanese philosopher who was interested in the beauty of objects made by unknown craftsmen. He also was the founder of the Japanese folk craft (mingei) movement and the first director of the Japan Folk Craft Museum.
In his essay, “The Beauty of Miscellaneous Things”, Yanagi explains why ordinary objects that are used everyday are beautiful. He included tools and utensils like bowls, spoons, plates, chests, and clothes as miscellaneous objects; things typically ignored by art history. These objects are used by common people to complete daily life tasks in the home. They can be bought cheaply, are purely utilitarian, and must be durable and steadfast. Additionally, they are made by unknown artisans. People in remote towns who usually live poor, humble lives. However, the artisans have mastered the process and repeat it all day for years in order to make money. This confidence and mastery means they can talk or joke while they work, allowing the unconscious and nature to take control of the final product.
Yanagi believes that beauty comes from expert hands using the unconscious nature. The nature of the material itself. The freedom from being labeled art, which leads to variations. From their humble, simple utilitarian form. Their everyday use. From the relationship the users form by using them. The beauty that is found in the common, simple, poor material seems to reflect the beauty of its common, simple, poor creators and users.
Unfortunately, while I share Yanagi’s love of these common, handmade objects, he was writing around earlier days of industrialization in Japan. There is much more beauty and value in handmade than machine-made. An idea I feel we all inherently know as people, and can see by just looking at the objects around us. However, we are too far into an industrialized, global world to have handmade objects be just as affordable as the breakable, machine-made things. Yanagi’s ideas remind me a lot of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain around the early 1900s.
It was a design rebellion against industrialization; machines replaced workers, and products were poorly made. In response, artists and designers collaborated to improve standards of design for homes. However, this movement emphasized decorative arts more than Yanagi’s objects, and was limited to wealthier upper middle class patrons. Different mediums like architecture, wallpaper, textiles, furniture, and lamps were meant to unite in a home space, emphasizing nature and simplicity of form.
Most of the subjects in my paintings are people, places, and things from everyday life. There’s a beauty there that is almost indescribable in words. I find myself drawn towards well used, well worn things and places. Towards objects in second hand stores, with their own history. When considering what to paint I find myself turned off from newer technologies like cell phones, laptops, and cars because they feel cold and inhuman. Objects and still lives are just as important and descriptive of humanity as portraits and landscapes. All three are connected, have meaning, emotion, and beauty. That’s why I incorporate all into my practice.
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