unnecessary?

--
"That's not a horse, you're just banging coconuts together!"-Monty Python and the Holy Grail
~~~
"Someday I'll be the artist formerly known as starving"-Fred Babb
~~~
Canucklehead

I would replace the word 'function' with 'association'. Beauty is symetry, and rhythm can be boring. I really don't find that either are functional in art. It's the breaks in the rhythm that add interest and character...
Beauty is mundane, and that is not a function of art.

not completely unnecessary because it has a function, to emphasize and draw attention to a point, but yes....unecessary to the message to use at all times.

--
Mock guilt and welcome hell.

Beauty CAN function in art...but is not the foundation of. It is just one of many many tools that can be used. And I am sick of people who think that beauty is what makes art and that all art must be beautiful.

--
Mock guilt and welcome hell.

Define 'beautiful'...

Beauty here I mean in the sense of pure visual pleasure...eye candy....not aesthetic but "pretty" or an element of the work just for visual stimulation on a base level.

--
Mock guilt and welcome hell.

Calendar art...
I am so thankful that my high school art teacher taught me the difference between art which is meaningful, and art which is 'retty'.

Hahahaha exactly. Pretty as I see it is an insult.

--
Mock guilt and welcome hell.

Yes, it's one of those meaningless words, like 'nice'.