Art must be beautiful?

by Korean artist Park Kyung-Sun. truly beautiful.

Will you call this beautiful?

Kids imitating sculptures by Yi Hwan-Kwon. 
Are they beautiful? I don't know. 
But they certainly make you think
from a very different angle.

I look forward to the real-life version of this
- by Hong Kong designer Douglas Young.

The annual debate at HK Art Fair this year was titled 'Art must be beautiful', and what Singaporean Artist Ming Wong did had brought much shock to many people.  Against the topic, he started stripping his clothes off, from the Maggie Cheung look as in In the Mood For Love to only dirty underwear left.  His point was that what is beautiful on the outside might not be beautiful inside, which I truly agree.  There is always many ways to look at things.  He also stated that "Hong Kong is captivating like a woman wearing an expensive fur coat but underneath wears dirty knickers." Well...this, is a very subjective statement.

ART
What is art? In general art is any kind of creations often involving expressions and emotions, but the word has been used so extensively that anything can be called art.  As I've seen recently from a shop display, that 'Sport is Art'.  Really?

MUST BE
There isn't anything called MUST in this world.  Nothing is a must. 

BEAUTIFUL
What is beauty?  Beauty is such a subjective thing, what is beautiful to you might not be beautiful to me.  It also depends on how you see it.  There is a beauty in everything.

With all these words more than subjective, I don't see any point to debate on this.  But even with my subjective definition of these words, I don't think art must be beautiful.  They are often stirring, sad, lonely, ugly, incomplete etc., giving me space to think and allowing me to see from a different point of view.  Of course, as a human being, I am naturally attracted to beautiful things, but they are definitely not the only things that attract me.

Apart from this very interesting debate, I must also say, the art pieces from Korea are really outstanding.