In my meandering research†, I stumbled across a profound essay by G.K. Chesterton entitled, The Toy Theatre. Though I have vaguely heard of him, I don’t believe I’ve ever read anything by him. I need to fix that. Anyone who is known as the Prince of Paradox (“Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories — first carefully turning them inside out.”) is someone I need to get to know better.
This little essay contains at least two major paradoxical aphorisms that I find profoundly insightful:
- Playing as children means playing is the most serious thing in the world.
- The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
Playing is more serious than working, Chesterton argues, because the former is done as an end itself, while the latter is merely done for instrumental reasons, e.g., to earn money. His examples of playing with blocks, dolls, and toy soldiers are ironically amusing.
However, it is his insight into framing that I find particularly compelling. Of course, he doesn’t mean that the physical frame that surrounds a painting is the most beautiful part (sometimes such frames are quite ugly). He means that the process of framing some aspect of the world in order to transform it into art is the most beautiful part of such art.
In fact, Chesterton goes further and claims that this process of framing is the essence of art and the essence of beauty:
Artistically considered, it reminds us of the main principle of art, the principle which is in most danger of being forgotten in our time. I mean the fact that art consists of limitation; the fact that art is limitation.
Has not every one noticed how sweet and startling any landscape looks when seen through an arch? This strong, square shape, this shutting off of everything else is not only an assistance to beauty; it is the essential of beauty. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
I love the idea that to open a work of art one must close some parts of the world — to enable, one must constrain. Epiphany!
† I stumbled across the essay while googling [facilitating contraints]. This led me to a Gamestorming article entitled, Facilitating with Constraints. (I highly recommend the Gamestorming site and book for exercises and techniques for creative group activities.) The article contained a link to a Wired article entitled, Need to Create? Get a Constraint (also recommended — it discusses psychological research into how constraints enhance creativity, e.g. the rules of haiku enhance creative poetry). Finally, at the end of the article is the quote, The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
If you want to know why I was googling [facilitating constraints], it’s because I was actually looking for “facilitative constraints” (which are part of my research into enabling constraints), and I simply misremembered facilitative as facilitating. Ah, sweet serendipity!
