Davies, Ch. 3, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
1. AESTHETIC VERSUS CONTEXTUAL THEORIES OF ART
2. Chapter considers arguments for and mainly against “Aesthetic Theories of Art”
3. Aesthetic theories of art = “Aesthetic functionalism” = “aesthetic formalism” = “Aestheticism”
a. Developed in 18th and dominated in 1st half of 20th century
b. Emphasis on formal beauty and what is directly available to senses
c. Art’s perceptual features are the only features relevant to art appreciation
d. Only “aesthetic properties” (defined narrowly and distinguished from artistic properties) are relevant
e. Art appreciation requires adopting an “aesthetic attitude”
i. Distinct frame of mind
ii. “Distanced” and disinterested contemplation
4. Critics who reject aesthetic theories include:
i. Contextualists (“Ontological contextualism”)
ii. Institutional and historical accounts of art
iii. “Philosophy of art theorists”
b. Developed in 2nd half of 20th century
c. Aes theories can’t account for art’s identity or meaning/content
i. Aestheticism ignores important properties that make art what it is and give it the meaning and content it has
d. Identity and content of artwork depend on aspects of situation in which work created (context)
i. Depend on art historical setting, social practices, conventions and institution in which art made and consumed
ii. Depends on “artistic properties”
e. Aes theories say focus on these artistic properties undermines aes perception
5. AESTHETIC PROPERTIES VERSUS ARTISTIC PROPERTIES
6. Aesthetic properties
a. Characteristics of object of appreciation when approached for its own sake
b. Internal to object of appreciation (artistic properties are relational)
c. Perceptible properties directly available for perception
d. Aesthetic properties apprehended independent of cognitive information
i. Recognition not require knowledge of matters external to object of appreciation
ii. No information about circumstances under which object made is needed
iii. No knowledge of intended or possible functions of object is needed
7. (Frank) Sibley’s list of aes properties
a. Unified, balanced, integrated, lifeless, serene, somber, dynamic, powerful, vivid, delicate, moving, trite, sentimental, tragic, graceful, delicate, dainty, handsome, comely, elegant, garish, dumpy, beautiful
8. Many aes properties have evaluative dimension
a. Neg–dumpy
b. Pos–dainty (compare: dinky)
9. Aes properties are 2nd order (higher order) properties that are based on (supervene on) simpler, non-aes properties of aes object (e.g., the “base properties”)
a. Examples:
i. “Unity” of a painting depends on its shapes, color fields and textures (the non-aesthetic base properties)
ii. If painting is garish (i.e., tastelessly showy, flashy, strident colors) it is due to its colors and how it displays and combines them
b. Same base properties, should lead to same aes properties
c. Change of base properties, likely affect aes character/properties
10. “Artistic Properties” = art-relevant, but non-aesthetics properties
11. Examples of artistic properties:
a. Symbolic properties: Dove carrying olive branch symbolizes peace
i. Not among the painting’s perceptible content
ii. Need to view painting in terms of conventions
b. Referential properties: Artworks that refer to other artworks; takes us beyond its internal features (e.g., appropriation art)
i. Examples Duchamp’s LHOOQ and LHOOQ shaved
https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Ematc/math5.pattern/MonaLisa.gif
https://www.toutfait.com/unmaking_the_museum/LHOOQ%20Shaved.html
c. Relational properties: Artwork can be original, influenced by earlier work, from artist’s middle phase, intend to emulate or reject previous art traditions, unusual because of its shadows
d. None of these are aesthetic properties, because they depend on non-perceptible features of the work and go beyond its internal features
12. Expressive and representational features of art can be artistic (non-aesthetic)
a. Realism of a representation require comparisons that take one beyond work’s boundaries
b. Idea that musical work expresses composer’s feelings also takes us beyond the work
13. Artists’ intentions not relevant for aes theories
a. If one assumes one can’t (immediately) perceive the artist’s intention in the artwork itself, then any feature of artwork that depends on artists’ intentions (perhaps what artwork expresses or represents or is about) also are not aesthetic (though they can be artistic properties of the work)
14. Main question: In appreciation of art as art, are aesthetic properties enough or do we need to consider artistic properties as well?
a. Aes theory claims that aes considerations (and aesthetic properties) are all one needs to appreciate art as art
i. Art’s artistic properties are not relevant to proper appreciation
b. Phil of Art/contextualism claims awareness of a work’s artistic properties is crucial to understanding it and to identify it as the work it is
15. Davies takes philosophy of art view: True in general of art pictures that significance lies more in artistic content than aes content
16. Properties of art that are neither aesthetic, nor artistic (art relevant)
a. Not all true statements about art are relevant to considering art as art
b. Examples
i. That it is Obama’s favorite painting;
ii. That it was hidden from the Nazis in WWII
iii. That it weighs 66 pounds
iv. That it’s the perfect size for covering a whole in the wall
v. Controversial?
(1) That it fetches $2 million dollars
(2) That the artist hates it? Gave it to his daughter?
17. AESTHETIC ATTITUDE AND ART FOR ART’S SAKE
18. Aes attitude
a. Target aes properties of artwork (not artistic properties)
b. Percipient (to receive works aes properties) must adopt special mental attitude (aes attitude)
c. Distanced or disinterested contemplation
d. Bracket out our natural concerns with respect to object’s usefulness, value, history, or classification
i. These distract one from proper experience of object
e. Cut out practical side of things
i. Examples
ii. Irish author Oscar Wilde advocated art’s independence from practical matters like morality (“books are neither morally good or bad, they are well or badly written that is all”)
iii. Mark Twain’s (Life on the Mississippi,1883): Experience that taught him to read the river (ripples indicating sandbars, sun and clouds as predictors of weather, trees as landmarks) destroyed his aesthetic experience:
iv. “All the grace, beauty and poetry had gone out of the majestic river”
v. https://www.online-literature.com/twain/life_mississippi/10/
19. Examples of (alleged) problematic interest (according to the aes theory)
a. Man who doubts wife’s faithfulness needs distance to appreciate Shakespeare’s Othello without melding his own thoughts with it
i. But: Isn’t art that relates to one’s own life and makes one think about own life powerful art?
(1) Suggestion here is that this distracts one from the proper focus on art–forcusing on one’s own problems instead
ii. Mightn’t one’s doubt about one’s wife allow one better insight into the mind of Othello?
20. DAVIES CRITICISMS OF AESTHETIC THEORY
21. (Non-aesthetic) artistic qualities are crucial to art appreciation
a. Need to understand
i. The kind of artwork it is
ii. Social conventions about how to approach it
iii. Medium of artwork and constraints/challenges it imposes
iv. How artist amplifies or repudiates work or theories of others
22. ***Political, religious, or moral messages conveyed by much art of all periods is far more crucial to its significance than are the aes qualities of its appearance
23. Psychological approach to aes experience is a problem
a. To appreciate art, don’t need to adopt
i. special frame of mind to appreciate art
ii. distinctive mode of attention,
iii. or ignore practical concerns
24. Practical interests need not undermine appreciation of art
a. Person scrutinizing painting to pass art appreciation exams has different motivation from person who considers it for own sake
b. But to succeed in the exam, must regard painting in similar way
c. No reason to believe difference in motivation leads to difference in attention given or in the experience that results
25. DAVIES EXAMPLES TO SHOW THAT SOME AES FORMALIST PROPERTIES DEPEND ON ARTISTIC PROPERTIES (“EXTERNAL FACTORS”) FORMALISM REJECTS
a. Form depends on content, so pure aestheticism not possible
26. Bruegel, Landscape with Fall of Icarus, 1555
a. https://www.usm.maine.edu/eng/bruegel%20icarus.JPG
b. Depicts Icarus (figure in Greek Mythology) falling from sky as flew too near sun and his wax wings melted; two prominent figures in painting are oblivious to his fate
i. Commentary on world’s indifference to individual martyrdom
c. Aes formalist says these facts about what painting represents and symbolizes are not relevant
d. Davies: Perceiving formal properties depends on knowing this story (p. 62)
i. “Only when we know what picture represents, does our attention shift to the inconspicuous legs in lower right and they become the work’s compositional center; we experience the rest of the scene as organized around them”
ii. “Even strict formalist must acknowledge that picture’s composition is deeply affected by psychological weight place on lower right corner”
iii. So examining the work’s form, requires knowing the story and this involves bringing something in from the outside.
e. Form depends on content: “General impossibility of separating formal factors from aspects of content not straight-forwardly visible”
27. Deposition of Christ by Caravaggio
a. https://www.catholicposters.com/shop/product.php?prodId=610
b. “Central compositional element is downward thrust of the arc created by heads and hands of the figures, a movement that ends in lifeless hand of Jesus”
c. If did not know head and hands have special meaning for us, would not focus on them and would not see this arc
d. So this formal property depends on understanding significance of head and hands of people
i. Such external information is the type the aesthetic formalist claims is not relevant
28. AESTHETIC THEORY CAN’T ACCOUNT FOR MANY IMPORTANT ARTWORKS
a. Especially in the 20th century
29. Maya Lin’s Vietnam’s Veterans Memorial (VVM) in Washington, DC
a. Seems impossible to account for the significance of artworks such as this memorial if put aside work’s social context and purpose,
i. If can’t consider whose names are listed and why
ii. Little remains of work’s meaning and identity
30. Reply: Aesthetic formalist on VVM
a. That VVM is a memorial is relevant to history and sociology of art
b. Technology of production, motivation for work, and significance of work to artist (and to public, Vietnam veterans, and U.S. history) are all legitimate concerns
c. But this social meaning not proper concerns if the focus is on the artwork
i. Not part of its identity or content
d. Will take effort of will to set aside the powerful political and historical message of VVM, but it should be approached solely in terms of formal and sensuous properties
e. Davies: To focus merely on VVM’s aes properties is to miss almost everything that is important about the work
31. Gates of Sorrow by Jim Gallucci
a. https://www.thefabricator.com/Articles/Photos/697/Fig4.jpg
b. Statue commemorating the Sept 11, 2001 tragedy
i. 50 tons, 47 feet tall
c. The disinterested aesthetic contemplator must be ignorant of or ignore that it was
i. Made to commemorate those who died
ii. Shaped from steal beams taken from remains of the World Trade Center
32. Robert Rauschenberg: Bed. 1955
a. Robert Rauschenberg made an artwork of his bed by applying paint to it in 1955
b. Arthur Danto (a “Historicist” about art’s nature) argues that what can become art and the significance it has depends on when and where it is offered and by whom
i. Leonardo Da Vinci could not have done same in late 15th century, as neither he nor his contemporaries could have conceived of the result as art, given the tradition of painting to that time
ii. Child painting his bed at same time as Rauschenberg, not an artwork
c. Aestheticism tells us to ignore when, where and who produced artwork and so can’t make these points
33. AESTHETIC THEORY HAS TROUBLE WITH PERCEPTUALLY EQUIVALENT OBJECTS
a. If perceptually equivalent, share same aes properties
b. But if only aesthetic properties count, there are no important differences (in terms of aesthetic appreciation) between perceptually equivalent objects
34. Duchamp’s fountain and ordinary urinal
a. Aestheticism can’t explain (or ignores)
i. Why Duchamp’s fountain is an artwork while other urinals from same production line are not.
ii. That Duchamp’s fountain invokes the tradition of sculpting in white marble, which other porcelain urinals do not
iii. Fountain offered a challenge to the presuppositions/prejudices of the artworld of its time, which urinals located elsewhere in the gallery do not
35. Image appropriation examples:
a. Image appropriators produce works that resemble those of the artist whose pieces they appropriated
36. Duchamp’s LHOOQ and LHOOQ shaved
https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Ematc/math5.pattern/MonaLisa.gif
https://www.toutfait.com/unmaking_the_museum/LHOOQ%20Shaved.html
a. LHOOQ shaved is not perceptually different from Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, but is obviously a completely different artwork and one’s aesthetic response ought to be completely different
b. LHOOQ shaved makes a witty connection both to LHOOQ and to Mona Lisa; Leonardo’s work contains no such reference
37. Sherrie Levine displayed as her own work photos she has taken of art-photographs of others (e.g., Edward Weston)
a. About Levine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherrie_Levine
b. Examples of Levine’s work
https://www.afterwalkerevans.com/imagesA.html
c. Sherrie Levine’s photos make art-political point that women typically gain entry to the gallery via the works of male artists; and works she appropriates do not make this point
d. The original photo and Levine’s photograph of it are two different artworks yet perceptually the same,
e. Aes theories can’t explain what distinguished them as they display identical aes properties.
38. Forgery (e.g., perceptually indistinguishable copy of a painting)
a. From critic’s viewpoint this matters much to its value as art
b. From aesthetic theory point of view, it is irrelevant that it is a copy
i. Identical aes properties and equal value as art
ii. If one is beautiful so is the other
iii. That it is not treated that way, shows judgment clouded by political, moral and other factors that should have no place in estimation of art
39. Lessig’s (a proponent of “aestheticism”) list of irrelevant features (see article by Lessig in Arguing text)
a. Forgery, age of artist when created it, political situation of creation, price it originally fetched, kind of materials used in it, stylistic influences, psychological state of artist, purpose of painting it
b. Not relevant to art as aes object, but to biology, history of art, sociology and psychology
40. Further examples that show that non-perceptible factors of artworks play important role in identity and content of artworks
a. Compare Andre Serrano’s Piss Christ with an otherwise identical work that fills the bottle containing the crucifix with cream soda, not urine
i. https://www.cofc.edu/hettinger/images/Serrano_Piss_Christ.jpeg
b. Compare one of Rembrandt’s self-portraits with a clone made as imaginative fiction by South American Indian who never heard of Rembrandt
c. Compare illustrations in medical text (not art) indistinguishable from homosexual erotic male nude photos by Robert Mapplethorpe
41. DAVIES SUMMARY CRITICISMS OF AESTHETIC THEORY
42. Reasons why much 20th century art fails to live up to expectations of aesthetic theory
a. This art downplays sensuous aspects of its appearance in favor of cognitive properties like wit and reference
i. Person who delights in gleaming whiteness of Duchamp’s fountain has missed the point; Duchamp went out of his way to choose a piece that is aesthetically neutral
b. Some conceptual artworks have no aes or other perceptual properties
i. Example: All that I once knew but can’t now remember
c. Literature can’t be explained by aes theories
i. For although books present some aes properties to senses, they are not relevant to the story
ii. Nor need one mentally imagine stories to appreciate narrative art
d. Anti-aes art not easily accommodated by aesthetic theory
i. This art sets out to eschew beauty for expressive power, semantic complexity or plain ugliness
ii. E.g., Duchamp’s upside down bicycle
https://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/images/duchampwheel.jpg
43. Concept of art must account for the 20th century artworks mentioned above
a. Can’t dismiss such cases as unusual or aberrant
b. Many have never been controversial and rest are usually now accepted as art
44. That aes theory can’t account for this art, shows it is an inadequate account of art
a. Don’t blame them (19th century art theorists) as they did not have advantage of seeing how artworld unfolded.
45. ART’S CONTEXTUALLY RELATIVE (“ARTISTIC”) PROPERTIES ESSENTIAL TO IT
a. Sociological, historical and cultural context in which art produced and consumed relevant to its identity and content
b. Just as can’t recognize which people are aunts and uncles solely on basis of appearance, cant recognize the relational properties important to artwork from its immediately perceptible features
c. To identify an artwork and locate the properties that belong to it as art, it must be seen in relation to those things outside its boundaries that contribute relationally to making it what and how it is
46. Once you allow some external relations as relevant to art, you will need some principle to rule out other external factors that clearly are not relevant
a. Properties and value of art that is not relevant to art as art (not relevant to their appreciation)
b. These "external values" of art include
i. Monetary value
ii. Fame given to some artists
iii. Value of sculpture as a door stop
iv. Sentimental value of art for a person
(1) I like this song because I met my wife while it was playing
47. WHICH ASPECTS OF ART-HISTORICAL CONTEXT RELEVANT?
48. If knowledge of this information should change (or affect) our understanding of the art object’s content, then it is relevant
a. For example:
i. A painting depicts a man dressed as Napoleon and woman in early 19th century dress
ii. At first we believe painting titled Napoleon and Josephine, later learn titled “The artist’s neighbors posing as Napoleon and Josephine before a fancy ball”
iii. Should revise our view of work’s content; work represents quite different people than we thought
iv. So we might need to know the title if we are to understand the work
49. Facts about artist can be relevant
a. Artists intention can be crucial to nature/content of work
i. Painting of one of two identical twins: Depends on artists intentions
ii. Artists intention can be crucial in determining reference, allusion, quotation, parody, symbolism, irony and metaphor
b. Sex of artist relevant?
i. Could/should the fact that a work was created (e.g., painted) by a female rather than a male effect our appreciation of it?
ii. Artist’s gender sometimes does and other times does not affect work’s properties
iii. Women may have distinctive interests and experiences apart from men’s that might affect content of an artwork
iv. For example: When depicting scenes with violent domestic or sexual themes, women might express thoughts and feelings that would not be present in an outwardly similar painting done from a male perspective.
(1) Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, ca 1612
https://www.ladysmaidjewels.com/Blog/gjudith2.jpg
v. Women painting herself nude with fruit, unlike long tradition of male painters painting females, is commenting on the tradition and making fun of practice of comparing women with fruit
c. Other facts about author and her collection of works can be relevant
i. Come from her juvenile or from her mature phase (depends on experience and age when done)
(1) Is this relevant to appreciating art object?
ii. Book 2nd in a trilogy, need to interpret/understand it in conjunction with other volumes (e.g., Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings)
50. Facts about works genre
a. Film first taken to be a comedy for children and then realize it is a suspense thriller for adults
i. Revise our understanding of earlier scenes and kinds of skills writer /director displays
51. Facts about the medium of piece and what is involved in working with it
a. Miniature sculpture carved from diamonds or ice, sculpture in marble or white soap, or mahogany or dark chocolate
i. Janine Antoni’s “Lick and Lather” (Head of a woman sculpted from chocolate and soap):
https://www.pbs.org/art21/slideshow/popup.php?slide=142
ii. Need to know that chocolate is luscious food that invites one to imagine licking and biting sculpture and that soap to be rubbed against the body
52. Facts about a work’s wider social setting can be relevant
a. Knowing that a work is a critique, commentary, satire on actual political events or class manners can be important in under what it’s about
b. Picasso’s Guernica is more powerful when seen as a protest against the bombing of the town by fascist forces in the Spanish civil war
53. Criticism: Davies contextualism is too cognitive
a. Reply: If gut level responses all that were needed, animals too could have aes experiences and would be as well qualified to appreciate art as we are; but they are not.
b. Reply: Appropriate experience of art not passive registering, but thought-filled interaction
i. But although thinking about art object is necessary, thinking on one’s thinking about it is not.
ii. Knowledge facilitates direct exp of object w/o thinking getting in the way.
iii. One often learns relevant knowledge by exposure to art over time and not necessarily in formal study
iv. Appreciation of art partial at first, but developed after that
