Exploring the Idea of Art - Essay Example

Exploring the Idea of Art Enter and Roll Number or College May Introduction Exploring the idea ofart is the most overwhelming idea in the world of art. There are a lot of philosophies and theories formulated to define art and the measure to evaluate artworks. In this assignment, we will discuss the institutional theory of art, conservative views, art as expressive emotion, art as significant form and cultural aesthetic systems in order to explore the idea of art. For some individuals art is the creation of a beautiful masterpiece which looks beautiful. But is beauty the only criterion to judge art? There are artists out there who use junk material to create art pieces, sculptures and instillation art. Is this type of art not as important as the art made with refined material? A lot of questions arise when we try to figure out what are the measures for artwork. According to Lazzari and Schlesier (2011), no definition of art is absolute or timeless. Definitions are framed keeping cultures, values, taste of people in mind. The most appropriate way to answer the question, what is art? Is to understand when was the art made and for which target audience? Art helps us in preservation of memory, emotion and time. It develops with time and keeps on changing its form. Cave paintings have evolved as graffiti in today’s world. 2. Exploring the idea of Art a. Institutional Theory of Art The first institutional theory of art is sketched by Danto in 1964. Institutional theory of art describes art as part of “art world”. The main function of art world is to define, authenticate, uphold and replicate the “cultural art”. In the later works, Danto defined art in terms of “aboutness”. Danto kept art as an “open concept”. If art is kept as an open concept then the photograph, painting or song of any nature even doodling around will be considered as art. Consider the photography used here. In my opinion, this is also a photography but cannot be accepted as an artwork because it does not follow any principles of art and is not aesthetically appealing. The Transfiguration of the Commonplae of George Dickie was inspired by Artworld of Danto. Dickie refers to the artworld as an “institution” which is operated with a lot of subordinate systems. These systems are made up of different forms of art like music, paintings, theatre and dance etc. these systems have further categories. According to the definition of art provided by Dickie, any piece or work of art which is displayed or presented in places like museums, theatres etc is a piece of art. Reason being that it is accepted by people who are there to scrutinize over the object or performance and that it has been passed through many critics’ eyes. This means that in order to be considered art the object presented must be appreciated by people appointed by art institutions. The five objections to this definition of art were Cohen (1973) pointed that every object is not appreciable if it does not look appealing to the eye. The institutions cannot accept or reject an art piece or act because there are no set limits or standards of the institutions as well. this objection was made by Monroe Beardsley in 1976. Danto objects on the “aesthetic appreciation” by pointing out that aesthetic appreciation is done by perception of the observers and not by acknowledging the mindset of the artist. For him expression of art is more important that presentation. Wollheim objects on the point that institution has set parameters for accepting or rejecting an artwork. It does not however disqualify the artwork itself. The acceptation or rejection of things may lie on the principles of people there which may differ from one institution to another. According to Carroll, this theory focuses on artwork accepted by society and thus loses its freedom. The painting used here as an example is created with the help of natural designs extracted from a pile of dried leaves, grass, flowers, stones and other material. It uses the lines, textures, forms and colors from the heap of natural things which were heaped as garbage. An artist extracted the shapes from there and drew them. This image looks aesthetically beautiful and can be accepted in a society as art. However, some art galleries might reject it on the basis of it having no “classical figures”. Art hence has no boundaries but everything heaped as a pile of garbage can also not be identified as artwork. b. Conservative views The artwork which appears to be great work to some people might look as a trash to others. It is not because they deliberately do that out of anger. It is because many eyes cannot see what the artist has complied. No one can get into the expression or has the time to extract the idea of an artwork from the mind of an artist. Therefore, an example to it is the removal of art piece from contemporary museum as trash by the cleaning staff. According to the critics and artworld people, anything presented by an artist is an artwork. Art does not have any definition and cannot be confined in any boundaries. Postmodernists believe that it is the “idea” behind an artwork which can categorize it as “art”. Modern art is focused on personal mood, emotion than on the idea for an artwork. Avant-garde movement is an example in this context where the experimental art made with artist’s own taste is referred to as art piece. Whether it follows principles or art or not as long as the artist designs it, it is accepted. According to Kahmi, the work of art cannot be fully abstract it has to have some elements from the real world. Picasso self portrait is an example in this context. It is an abstract painting as it does not use the classical proportions of human face but it has eyes, nose, ears and other facial features of a human face. This gives it an abstract look but not an alien one. Art conveys meaning indirectly than directly. The meaning of an artwork depends upon the viewer’s perception. Representation of art by an artist depends on his perceptions whereas the meaning which the viewer gets from it is wholly based on his observation. The viewer might get the feeling of isolation and despair from this famous Starry Night Painting by Van Gogh. However, the idea of the artist was to represent that each human is a star surrounded by his own light and can overcome the hurdles. He wanted to uplift the poor but a viewer of the artwork takes the meaning differently. In my opinion, the perceptions can change the whole meaning of the artwork therefore perception of painting may be variable but cannot be a measure for categorizing a work of art as accepted or rejected. c. Other Philosophical Systems “Art as Expressive Emotion” Art is emotive in nature. It gives its viewer to experience the mood which artist wants to depict. If an artwork has to be looked and felt exactly the way artist wants it to be seen and felt then viewer has to get into the mindset of the artist. This is impossible. Therefore, a viewer observes the artwork according to his mindset, his current emotion, his style and his perception. We listen to sad songs and enjoy them when we feel blue; similarly we enjoy rock music in high spirits. A crying man cannot appreciate rock, metal or hard music and vice versa. This can be proved by the painting Scream by Munch that it is representation of anxiety of the artist which he felt throughout his life but a person who is high spirited and in a light mood might just laugh off this masterpiece. His mock does not make this painting worthless but proves that perception of artwork cannot be a standard in artwork being accepted or rejected. An example to emotional representation in art is the photography of autumn. It stirs the emotion of its viewer. With the warmth of its hue it makes one feel overwhelmed and at the same time lonely as autumn is related to loneliness. According to Collingwood, the imaginative activity of expression by an artist is done in the form of art (Holcombe, 2007). According to Dewey, a work of art is the collection of memories an artist gathers from his surroundings therefore it is not the creative emotional representation but preservation of moments. According to aesthetic detachment, the artist represents emotions which are different than real life. Art is not expression of emotion but representation of it (Holcombe, 2007). Romanticism represents art as expression. An art piece is initiated by an emotion of artist which cannot be perceived accurately by the viewer. “Clive Bell – Significant Form” Bell was philosopher of art who defended abstract art. Form and relation of forms are the reason for arousing aesthetic emotion in a viewer. They can be defined as relationship between elements of art like line, color, shape etc. Kant accepted this philosophy of art because of the aesthetic judgment based on principles of art. According to Bell, at least there should be one element or quality without which a work of art cannot exist. The appeal of an artwork should be universal and eternal in nature. The body modification art of split tongue uses one of the qualities of art but it does not seem to be appealing to everyone. To most of the people it is a taboo and may give a disgusting emotion while others might feel it is trendy. Therefore, bell theory cannot be implemented over this kind of art. Another example is the painting of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci which has universal and eternal fame. It uses the qualities of art like proportion, balance and emphasis. It is hence a work of art and this theory is correct for it. d. Cultural Aesthetic Systems “Chinese Aesthetics” The Chinese aesthetics are dominated by calligraphy or the art of literati. Paintings made in Chinese culture are inspired by cultural settings and landscapes. Calligraphy is used abundantly in the Chinese art in form of poetry depiction and letter writing. Xie He outlined principles for judging art. They include n the use of brush, spirit and painting connection, faithful representation of forms, rules in application of color, principles in element placement and ancient models used as a standard for making new paintings. Michael Sullivan explained these principles. The artist must make the artwork when he feels a cosmic connection. Chinese art is traditional and cosmic art; this can be proved with the painting of the lady in the traditional dress. Calligraphy is important element and part of the paintings. The Chinese aesthetics imply the use of brush strokes as the most important feature in any art work. The paintings made as song or scripture depiction use the “visions” like mind landscapes in making them. There was a time in Chinese art when Mao focused on masses as a subject of paintings. The subject masses of the painting were depicted as heroes not as victims. The Chinese working class made in paintings reveals their passion in work and not the amount of stress they go through. Chinese retain the use of traditional art and include international elements of art like western aesthetics along with nationalism. Nationalism is evident in the graphic image used here. Chinese always motivate their nation to success. However, this artwork does not use traditional brush strokes. It is made according to western elements used in graphic illustrations. “Indigenous Aesthetics” The religious beliefs are described by aborigines as dreaming by the West. Aborigines and indigenous both these terms are not liked by the Australian aborigines. Aesthetical expression is done by religious rituals. Sacred ritual gives an opportunity to make objects. Cave, rock painting which were made as outlines and X rays are unique art of the Australian aborigines. This is an example of the aborigines painting style of x rays and outlines. Art is a tradition of this culture, they make marks and body art, face paintings, tongue piercing, objects, rock paintings etc. the paintings however are manifestation of dreamtime or spiritual entities. Icons and symbols like circles, straight lines and slanting lines all represent and have some meaning related to ancient tradition. The aborigines cave painting however does not use circles, lines or x rays in it. They use the silhouettes of hands to represent the dreamy state or mystic expression. 3. References Lazzari, M., Schlesier, D. 2011. Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach. US: Cengage Learning. 4th ed. Holcombe, J., C. 2007. Art as Emotive Expression. Available at http://www.textetc.com/theory/emotive-expression.html (Retrieved 1st May2014) Read More