What is a Real Work of Art?

“The creation of beauty is art,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836 in a slim volume called Nature. The Emerson quote provides the perfect introduction to the subject of Roger Scruton’s BBC documentary “Why Beauty Matters.”

Scruton is a well-known British philosopher and author most recently of Beauty: A Very Short Introduction.

In the film Scruton tells us, “there is all the difference in the world between a real work of art, which makes ugliness beatiful, and the fake work of art which shares the uggliness it shows.” Please watch the video below: