Robust Beauty: Art as Mere Taste or Communion with Transcendent Reality?

Come join for the next SF Art Forum: Restoring Robust Beauty: Art as Mere Taste or Communion with Transcendent Reality? in February with Fr. Bradley Thomas Elliott:

For centuries, we understood art not just as a burst of emotion, but as a "virtue"—a specific skill of the mind that required a steady hand and a clear standard. Just as a builder relies on a level and a plumb line, the classical artist looked to the natural world to find their "measure." This wasn't about simply copying what they saw, but about understanding the underlying harmony, balance, and order of reality.

Today, we are often told that art is entirely subjective—a matter of personal "taste" that begins and ends with the individual. But when art is cut loose from the natural order, the artist can become isolated in their own private feelings.

This lecture argues that by returning to the classical principles of integrity, proportion, and clarity, we can re-anchor art to something solid. These "measures" do not limit the artist; instead, they liberate them. By looking outward at the natural world, the artist discovers a beauty that is more than just an opinion. They create a "window" into a truth that transcends the individual, inviting everyone who sees the work to enter into a shared experience of the world.

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Fr. Bradley Thomas Elliottcurrently serves as a Professor of Moral Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California. He authored (2023), which examines the link between the virtue of art and moral virtue in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Before entering religious life, Fr. Brad was a prominent professional jazz drummer based in Los Angeles. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz and Studio Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2002. Over a decade-long career in the music industry, he was a highly sought-after session and touring musician, performing various genres from rock to big band and touring extensively with artists such as Annie Stela and Brie Larson.
Drawn to the Catholic Church through an attraction to "beauty and truth," he eventually left the music industry to join the Western Dominican Province. This transition did not end his artistic work but shifted its focus toward the metaphysics of creativity.

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