Beauty at the end of World War I

WWI ended 100 years ago. It brought ugliness to people’s lives and the nature around them. Ugliness and beauty – we don’t like to talk about these attributes yet we step on cockroaches and not butterflies.

Several articles have appeared recently about the artist Anna Coleman Ladd’s work on making masks for injured WWI veterans. The facial disfigurements created sad scenarios in which soldiers did not want to visit their mothers. Soldiers’ own children “fled in terror” at seeing their faces. Ladd’s work was appreciated by injured soldiers. One soldier wrote, “Thanks to you, I will have a home. The woman I love no longer finds me repulsive, as she had a right to do.” (1)

Being comfortable with oneself is important; however, we do find some deep appeal in beauty – however that is defined. We preserve what is beautiful in museums and throw the ugly stuff in the garbage.

Fortunately, we can see through surface features. I had a friend who had a very large mole on his face. After knowing him for a while, I no longer saw it. Now I don’t remember where it was.

I have worked with people who have disfigured features and overcoming repulsion is the first step in developing compassion. However, repulsion is something we consider even when awash in self-empowerment education. The struggles with acne, warts, and bad teeth are truly difficult for many. More profound disfigurement can cause even deeper struggles.

We wish to surround ourselves with what is beautiful, we don’t aspire to wear cubic zirconium and wrinkled clothes. Designers need to understand the notion of beauty and its connection with many fundamental elements of design.

Human faces are symmetrical left to right but not top to bottom. We find this interesting and appealing. Variety attracts, sameness is boring. Perfect symmetry and perfect skin appears fake, we are intrigued by small amounts of asymmetry and “flaws”.

Most importantly, we expect to see what we are used to – a visual stereotype. Therefore, we are fortunate that Ladd and other artists and designers restore beauty to the world around us. Even the damage of WWI is replaced by new births and nature’s recovery of battlefields.

(1) Alexander, Caroline. “Faces of War.” Smithsonian Magazine, February 2007.