Prior Existence of Convention - Term Paper Example

Aesthetic properties involved in the art are: (inclusive of sensuous and formal values) 1) pure value properties, 2) emotional properties, 3) behavioral properties, 4) evocative properties, 5) representational properties and 6) historical properties (Cooper. 1992). Pure value entails elements of beauty or ugliness. Emotion properties include anger, joy, sadness, happiness. Behavioral properties describe elements of bounciness, sluggishness, laziness and daring. Evocative properties evoke feelings by suggesting powerfulness, dullness, amusement, inspiration, etc.

Representational properties include life-like images, distortions, realism, superrealism, and more. Historical properties include being bold, conservative, radical, original.What is beauty? The medieval, Christian take on beauty was more metaphysical, relying on Greek philosophy and mythology to set the standard. Thomas Aquinas attributed three things to beauty: integrity/perfection, proper proportion, and light (Adams. 1999). Many art discussions of the 18th century centered around the contrast between the beautiful and the sublime (nearly holy).

The evolution of art that lost its focus on the object and chose “indifference”, or abstraction from the existence (Adams. 1999), began in Kant’s day and was reinforced in the 20th century by the art-for-art’s sake movement that insisted on removing representational, symbolic and even emotional content from the work. It became only about the experience of creating and expression. People disagreed with this concept, and still do, seeing art as connected to human emotion in many ways.

By removing those properties from a work of art, the audience lost much of its empathy for the work. Survivability becomes a low probability when that happens.Wanted: A new theory of beauty. In Rosenstein’s article (2002), The End of Art Theory, he decides that one way to revive art theory would be to develop a new theory of beauty.