Art

Art
//Here begins a collection of images, ideas, assertions, experiments, evidence of what is "art"...//

Definitions of [|art] on the web (ph&sod)

Photo taken in Christiania, Denmark (sod )

Some key positions in art (from Atkinson (2007): **// Position //** || **// Proponent //** || **// Key Aspects //** || Representation     ||  Plato  ||  Classic view  ||   ||  Croce    Collingwood  ||  General category often related to the articulation (to an audience) of expression of emotion; of attitudes and/or beliefs. Can be further developed as Emotionalist, Intuitionist, Institutionalist     ||  Ducasse 1928    Knox, 1931     ||  Defining property is the expression of emotion in some sensuous public medium     ||   ||  Dickie 1974  ||  Artworld. Something is art because of the place it comes to occupy within an art-specific context. The definition of art cannot be understood independently of the institution of art. For Danto, Art is about something; it projects a point of view through rhetorical ellipses; it requires both interpretation and an historical context || Langer <64 Beardsley 1979 ||  Inclusive of Expression; Human Feeling; Affording aesthetic experience. Is more a category of definition rather than a definition per se (c.f. Procedural definitions). Thus many expressionist theories may be seen as being Functional || Beardsley 1983 Mitias 1988 Rowe 1991 ||  Art as aesthetic attitude: a mode of attention (not feeling or emotion) – mode of contemplation through sight, hearing, touch. Imagination directly involved in perception. ‘The purpose of giving aesthetic reasons…’ (Rowe) || Saville 1982 Wollheim 1987 || The correct interpretation of an artwork is fixed by some subset of actual or possible intentions of the Artist with respect to that work (Gaut, 1993) ||  ||  Beardsley Bell Fry ||  The correct interpretation of an artwork is by reference to significant form; there is no reference to the intent (or otherwise) of the Artist || Anti-Essentialist  ||  Ziff, 1953 Weitz 1956 Gallie 1956 Kennick 1958 ||  Artworks classified by resemblance (family or paradigm classes – a la Wittgenstein) …that art is amenable to real or any kind of true definition is a false concept. ‘A Definition of Art would foreclose on future creativity’ || Weitz (earlier work)  ||  Art is a class of organic wholes (comprising a unique complex of distinguishable, albeit inseparable, elements) presented in some sensuous medium ||  ||  Langer 1976  ||  Art should aim to capture more absolute truths which could only be accessed by indirect methods. Symbolists employ highly metaphorical and suggestive techniques, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning. || Carroll 1988  ||  Historical (intention – Levinson or narrational – Carroll) ||  ||
 * Imitation /
 * Expressionist
 * Emotionalist ||  Tolstoy 1896
 * Intuitionist ||  Croce, 1901  ||  Art is a first stage of knowledge achieved through a specific creative, cognitive & spiritual act; an awareness of the unique. It is the putting (expression) forth of purpose, feeling, or thought into a sensuous medium
 * Institutionalist ||  Danto 1964, 1973/4
 * Functional ||  Collingwood <64
 * Aesthetic ||  Scruton 1974
 * Intentionalism ||  Hirsch 1967
 * **// Position //** || **// Proponent //** || **// Key Aspects //** ||
 * Formalism
 * Non-definable /
 * Organicist ||  Bradley
 * Voluntarist ||  Parker, 1953  ||  Complex definition: art is essentially 3 things – embodiment of wishes and desires imaginatively satisfied, language, and harmony; art is the provision of satisfaction through the imagination, social significance and harmony
 * Symbolic ||  Goodman 1969
 * Historical ||  Levinson 1979
 * Natural/Cultural ||  Dickie 1997  ||  Theory classification c.f. Definition; accepting no single definition possible. Art as an expression of emotion (natural kind). Cultural – dependent on an art theory to make art possible (for example Warhol/Emin/Hirst)