I'm probably missing something in your reasoning. I'm of the understanding that there is only one Truth and Beauty reveals Truth to the observer.
So if Beauty = Truth, I stop for a moment when thinking the creation of a lie results in the revealing of Truth.
Is it really a lie if the observer looks at a portrait or landscape and knows they're not looking at the actual person or looking at a field?
I'm trying to process what you're throwing out there
A fan of dialectics?
I guess where my argument lies is that Beauty reveals a truth but not uninterpreted objective truth. It reveals a truth about the observer and the creator of the artwork. Beauty itself is still an interpretation.
To approach truth, we would also need to observe the ugliness in what was previously beautiful. Otherwise, you stopped looking after being satisfied. Then, we would need to understand other interpretations on it.
My current epistemology is similar to Perspectivism.
The "lie" (fabrication would have been a better word as it doesnt imply negative intent) is not in the the art being a representation lf reality but being an observers selective representation of their interpretation of truths that then gets interpretted by later observers, creating beauty where people need it to exist. Viewing a desert as beautiful instead of a hostile makes it much easier to deal with for some. One could view colliding planets as beautiful, but I'm sure living through it wouldn't look that way.
