I'd like to start off this question with a Bible verse on the subject of beauty.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 - "What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil--this is God's gift to man."
There are, no doubt, more verses on the subject of beauty. But this one I find striking, since it says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Not just a few paintings here and there. But the verse also specifically says, "in its time." I would take this to mean that we may not see the beauty in everything all at once, but that in God's great plan for the world, everything has its time and place to make God's plan beautiful.
Take a look at these two images:
The first of these is a painting by Andy Warhol. The second, however, is simply a picture of some clouds. Which do you find more beautiful?
Some people may say they find the first picture beautiful. But why is it beautiful? What is it in the image that makes it beautiful? It is merely an image of Campbell's soup cans. All this does is ground the viewer in reality, reminding him or her that soup cans exist.
The clouds, on the other hand, tend to evoke a feeling that there is more to the world than what meets the eye. The clouds can ground us in reality in the same way that the soup cans do, but something about them draws us to God. I would say this is because of what Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, that "he has put eternity into man's heart". Through such images, we see a part of the beauty of God. In a sense, beautiful images serve as vessels for the light of God. We see the vessel, but we also see light shining through it.
The clouds could just be clouds, but they are also awe-inspiring. Their beauty tells us that they did not come about by accident, but by the hand of God. Thus, beauty does not just please the eye. Warhol's soup cans might please some people's eyes, but they do not possess that beauty that draws the viewer out of himself and into the idea that God is beautiful.
But then the next part of Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." We see a part of God's eternity through beauty, but we cannot comprehend His entirety because He is God. If we could explain all that He is, He would not be God, but merely another creation of the human mind. But eventually, when this world passes away and those who believe in God go to be with Him, they will see the true beauty of God.
