In this article, the Colombian writer and critic Luis Vidales evaluates aesthetic methods based on spiritual causality, as distinct from positivist doctrines that seek causality in external phenomena. He suggests that style—that is, the technical aspects of a work of art—evolves from social rather than geographical factors. He turns to history to find an example in Egyptian art that spans the Early Dynastic Period to the Theban Empire. He goes on to make a distinction between collective art (as produced by homogenous social organizations with a religious foundation) and individual art (as produced in societies founded on the concept of ‘I’). The former tends toward composition in rows and geometric lines; the latter toward individual composition and sumptuous lines. Vidales ends by discussing the inherent disparity in contemporary art which he thinks is an appropriate means of expression for a society in a state of crisis.   

This article was published in 1958; twelve years after the Tratado de estética [Aesthetics Treatise] [see “Tratado de estética”, doc. no. 1080374]. By that time, the Colombian writer Luis Vidales (1900–1990) had developed a consistent critical system that he had been using for twenty years to evaluate a wide variety of Colombian and international art. The article summarizes the basic principles of the method used, suggesting a synthetic approach to some of his key concepts: “style” and “social organization.”

In this area, the most important methodological advance can be found in the distinction made between art from collective periods and art from individual periods, since this allows Vidales to judge art in terms of its social environment. This also affects the criteria for evaluating works since Vidales does not think we should keep talking about “good art” and “bad art.” When it is in synch with its society, art is always good; if not, it is simply not art.

This perspective opened new horizons in the Colombian aesthetic. Prior to the introduction of these methodological principles it was impossible to find complex discussions, such as the ones in this article, especially those that address the difference between canvas painting and mural painting, or the role of disparity in new artistic movements.