Transcript CHAPTER 11 Areas of Knowledge

Chapter 11
Areas of knowledge – The arts
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What is art? (1)
• Calling something art because of the intentions of
the artist
– Something is a work of art if the maker intended it to evoke
an aesthetic response.
– If something is intended as a work of art, then it should not
be made with a practical use in mind.
• Criticism:
– Does intending something to be art automatically make it
art? Or might it just be junk?
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What is art? (2)
• Calling something art because of the quality of
the work
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The idea of quality is connected with the idea of skill.
A great work of art is a combination of content and form.
It may not be beautiful.
It may even be intended to shock.
• Criticism:
– A work of art may be technically excellent but lack originality,
e.g. kitsch art – clichéd or mass-produced art, forgeries.
– It may be original but lack technical skill, e.g. Picasso’s Bull’s
Head.
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What is art? (3)
• Calling something art because of the response of
the spectators
– A work of art requires people to appreciate it.
– ‘Experts’ may understand the meaning of a work of art better
than the artist who made the work.
• Criticism:
– The response to a work of art may:
• change over time (or may be just a fashion)
• differ between ordinary people and ‘experts’.
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What is art? (4)
• Calling something art because it is found in an art
gallery
– French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) took everyday
objects, renamed them and exhibited them as art called
‘readymades’.
– So where does art begin? Is everything art? Or does that
devalue the idea of art? Or is everything art if you just look at
it differently?
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Aesthetic judgements
• Are they objective or subjective?
• Examples of canonical works (the ‘classics’):
– literature: Oedipus Rex (Sophocles), works of Shakespeare
and Goethe
– visual arts: Leonardo, Picasso
– music: Mozart, Beethoven
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The paradox of aesthetic judgement
• It is accepted that there are standards to judge by.
• However, different people have different tastes which
are fully valid for each of them.
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Should aesthetic judgements
be disinterested? (1)
• If I say ‘I like this painting’ and you say you don’t like
it, these two statements can coexist.
• If I say that the painting is beautiful and you say that
it is not beautiful, the two statements contradict each
other. To say that something is beautiful implies that
other people ought to find it beautiful.
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Should aesthetic judgements
be disinterested? (2)
• Kant (1724–1804) said that, unlike personal tastes,
aesthetic judgements are disinterested.
• If you like a piece of music because it reminds you of
a happy time in your life, you are interested.
• To be disinterested, we should go beyond our
personal tastes and preferences so that we can
appreciate a work of art on its merits.
• Parallel with sport: someone may not like a
sportsman but may appreciate that he/she is
technically good.
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Are there universal standards
in art? (1)
• Psychological factors
– Look at the two paintings on p. 341 of the Coursebook.
Discuss the emotions aroused by the two paintings.
– Look at other paintings:
• Do horizontal lines in paintings always give a feeling of peace?
• Do diagonal lines generally give a disturbing feeling?
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Are there universal standards
in art? (2)
• Komar and Melamid (Russian artists) conducted
research into visual art. They:
– examined the most popular paintings across a wide range of
cultures
– found that popular paintings depict landscapes in which the
viewer can see without being seen.
• Possible explanations:
– Our preference for such landscapes may result from our
evolved survival instincts.
– The world is dominated by US culture → globalisation of
taste.
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Are there universal standards
in art? (3)
• Komar and Melamid also found a similar universality
in musical taste. Sense of rhythm in music may
reflect the human pulse.
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Are there universal standards
in art? (4)
• Cultural differences
– Comparing art is difficult: some people are inclined to see
similarities between things and others to see differences.
– Contrasting cultures may not understand the nature of art in
other cultures without help.
– Other examples:
• Opera: Chinese and European opera differ greatly.
• Sport: baseball differs from cricket.
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Art and knowledge (1)
• Art as imitation
– Mimesis is Greek for ‘imitation’. The mimetic theory
suggests that the purpose of art is to copy reality.
– Example artists include Michelangelo (1475–1564) and
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917).
• Important developments:
– Fifteenth century: development of perspective
– Nineteenth century: invention of the camera
• Why try to copy reality in paint when it can be copied at the
click of a button?
• Led to revolutionary changes in the nature of visual art, music
and literature.
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Art and knowledge (2)
• Art as imitation: criticisms
– The ‘copy’ theory does not apply to music.
– Art does not merely copy reality, it creatively interprets it.
– Paul Klee (1878–1940), a Swiss painter, said that ‘Art does
not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible’, i.e. it helps
us see things we would not otherwise notice.
– Art can also influence the way we subsequently view the
world, e.g. paintings, plays, books, music.
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Art and knowledge (3)
• Art as communication
– ‘The language of art’ is a form of communication between
the artist and the spectator.
– Implies there may be a ‘grammar’ and ‘vocabulary’ of art that
needs to be learned to allow understanding.
– Art can arouse in a way that words cannot, e.g. the last
movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
• Art as communication has:
– breadth, e.g. literature can project us beyond personal
experience and help us to learn from others
– depth, e.g. ordinary language may not adequately express
deep emotions.
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Art and knowledge (4)
• Art as education
– Art provokes emotions that can influence decisions/actions
→ links to ethics.
– It may challenge us to question our assumptions.
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Science, art and truth (1)
• Patterns
– Both look at the patterns in things.
– Art expresses patterns in more altruistic, intuitive,
imaginative forms.
– Science expresses patterns in mathematics, logic, formulae,
reason.
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Science, art and truth (2)
• Beauty
– Both may be seen as ‘beautiful’, e.g. Einstein said that the
theory of relativity was ‘too beautiful to be false’.
– Mathematical ‘beauty’ is no guarantee of truth.
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Science, art and truth (3)
• Prior knowledge
– Art does not always need prior knowledge to appreciate it.
– Science usually needs prior knowledge to appreciate it.
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Discovered or invented?
• Most people agree that science is discovered and art
is invented.
• However, some artists feel their work is already there,
just waiting to be uncovered, e.g. the sculptor
releases the sculpture hidden in the marble.
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Science and art as complements
• Science and art could be seen as complementary
ways of making sense of the world.
• Science looks at things from outside; art looks at
things from inside.
• Subjective experience is important as well as
objective, measurable facts.
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The arts and truth
• The paradox of fiction
– Fiction can reveal deep truths about the human condition.
– Humans often turn to fiction in search of truth.
• Two scientific theories may be mutually exclusive.
• Two works of art may equally reveal truth.
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