ARTAPP1: LESSON 2

LESSON 2: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES AND ASSUMPTIONS OF ARTS OBJECTIVES:

A. PHILOSOPHY OF THE ARTS

What is the relationship between art and philosophy? As previously defined in Lesson 1 of this module, art is a process and a product of the artist’s imagination and creativity using his skills. On the other hand, Philosophy literally means the love of wisdom, but on a broader sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other

Philosophy of art is the study of the nature of art, including concepts such as interpretation, representation and expression, and form. It is closely related to aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. Also, it is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with the analysis and evaluation of particular works of art (Hospers, 2020).

Without a certain degree of intellect there can be no subtle feelings and from this it follows that art, which aesthetically expresses man's emotional-intellectual world in his relationship to the environment, is bound to feel the impact of philosophy and the other sciences. A world-view may come into art but not as an intrinsic part of it. We can speak of the philosophical content of art, just as we can speak of the philosophical content of science, when the scientist begins to consider the essential nature of his science, its moral value, social responsibility, and so on. These are actually philosophical questions and they do not form part of the specific nature of the given science.

Rather they are the self-awareness of the science, just as the artist's reflections on the nature of art, its social meaning, and so on, are the self-awareness of art. And this is in fact philosophy, whose categories permeate all forms of thought, including that of the artist. Without them no artist could generalize, identify the typical in the particular fact, assess the quality of his subject-matter, preserve proportion, the most vital element in aesthetic imagination, or comprehend the contradictions of life in such a way as to give them full expression (Spirkin, A.,1983).

The work of the artist is not spontaneous. It always follows some kind of plan and it is most effective when talent is guided by a world-view, when the artist has something to tell people, much more rarely is it effective when it comes about as a result of the accidental associative play of the imagination, and never is it effective when it is a result of blind instinct. The keen attention that is given to the problems of method is a sign of progress in both modern science and art, a sign of the increasing interaction of all aspects of intellectual life—science, philosophy, and art.

B. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ARTS

1. Art as imitation- Plato’s the Republic

Plato was the first to introduce the idea of art as imitation, but in a decidedly derogatory sense, in contrast to Aristotelian or representational art (see next section). For Plato (strangely enough, in view of the high literary worth of his dialogues) poets, dramatists and painters were mere imitators and creators of appearances, thrice removed from real or objective truth, which for him could only be found in the Ideal and super-sensible Form of Beauty. It is generally agreed that Plato’s thoughts on art are somewhat ambivalent, at times, as in Book 10 of the Republic, showing scant respect and little tolerance for any art that does not conform to the highest dictates of the State, namely, pure Reason and the moral Good. At other times (as in the Phaedrus) he is quite appreciative of the divinely inspired abilities of the rhapsodies (performing artists, such as Phaedrus) (Pietersen, H. J., 2006).

Yet, overall Plato is consistent in his view (typical of the metaphysical-visionary mode of thought) that true art is to be found in the universal forms of wisdom and beauty; as reflected in the formal patterns of mathematical symmetry and measure. What he (Plato) regarded as unacceptable, including Homer’s poetry that he much admired, is art that is mostly a manifestation of the lower, appetitive, levels of being. For Plato universal truth always superseded any personal admiration he may have felt for revered individuals such as Homer.

2. Art as a Representation- Aristotle’s Poetics

Like Plato, Aristotle defines art as mimesis, an imitation. Both agree that artists must be well educated as a means to acquire technical skills in order to produce tekhnê. This process is one based on scientific knowledge. Aristotle believed that man has the ability to apprehend through his Nous, which is an infallible mental faculty, the divine element within human beings (Selioni, V., 2013). Aristotle believed that if an artist wishes to create a work of art, he should collect all available material on the subject and present them in a specific form.

Thus, he starts from his general procedure when he examines a phenomenon; he first examines the reasons that produce a result. However, Aristotle considered that it was more important to conceive a specific form than to actually create it.

Aristotle was mainly concerned with the universal and he believed that in art the Universal is the act of becoming and the productive process that transubstantiates the informal into formal (Sikoutris, 1995: 59).

3. Art as a Disinterested Judgment- Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment

Kant has a definition of art, and of fine art; the latter, which Kant calls the art of genius, is “a kind of representation that is purposive in itself and, though without an end, nevertheless promotes the cultivation of the mental powers for sociable communication” (Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment, Guyer translation, section 44, 46).) When fully unpacked, the definition has representational, formalist and expressivist elements, and focuses as much on the creative activity of the artistic genius (who, according to Kant, possesses an “innate mental aptitude through which nature gives the rule to art”) as on the artworks produced by that activity. Kant’s aesthetic theory is, for architectonic reasons, not focused on art. Art for Kant falls under the broader topic of aesthetic judgment, which covers judgments of the beautiful, judgments of the sublime, and teleological judgments of natural organisms and of nature itself. So Kant’s definition of art is a relatively small part of his theory of aesthetic judgment. And Kant’s theory of aesthetic judgment is itself situated in a hugely ambitious theoretical structure that, famously, aims, to account for, and work out the interconnections between, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious faith.

4. Art as a Communication of Emotion- Leo Tolstoy

How can we define art? What is authentic art and what is good art? Leo Tolstoy answered these questions in “What is Art?” (1897), his most comprehensive essay on the theory of art. Tolstoy’s theory has a lot of charming aspects. He believes that art is a means of communicating emotion, with the aim of promoting mutual understanding. By gaining awareness of each other’s feelings we can successfully practice empathy and ultimately unite to further mankind’s collective well-being. Furthermore, Tolstoy firmly denies that pleasure is art’s sole purpose. Instead, he supports a moral-based art able to appeal to everyone and not just the privileged few. Although he takes a clear stance in favor of Christianity as a valid foundation for morality, his definition of religious perception is flexible. As a result, it is possible to easily replace it with all sorts of different ideological schemes (Chaliakopoulos, A., 2020).

C. ASSUMPTION OF ARTS

1. Art is universal. The reason Greece is wrong to claim the Parthenon sculptures as an exclusive national property is the same reason that this is a noble agreement: because art is for everyone. It does not have any borders.

2. Art is cultural. In every culture in the world, artistic expression has emerged to provide an outlet for thoughts, feelings, traditions, and beliefs. It's generally less important to define what art actually is and more useful that anthropologists look at the impact and meaning of a particular form of expression.

3. Art is not nature. If you think of nature as a baseline for truth (or what we experience as truth through our senses), art is an interpretation of that, an additive substance. Like science, mathematics and religion, art is a modeling tool for diving deeper into the patterns, rhythms and meanings tossed up by nature— interpreting, reframing and understanding them. It can easily exist conceptually, without embodiment, whereas nature is pure embodiment, existent with or without conceptuality.

4. Art involves experience. All life is experience; everything you have been through up to now colors what you look at, how you see it, what details you focus as opposed to someone else and how they look at the same things. No two people are the same so your experiences shape all your art and anyone else’s is shaped by theirs.

5. Art as expression. Art is an expression made visible by a form. The expression contained in the form is an attempt to translate the unnamed and the unknown. Intrinsic to our existence as humans is our quest to create meaning, and art allows that process to take place. Making meaning involves understanding our surroundings and marking our experiences. Art, at its root, is an expression and the artist is an expresser, translating in order to create meaning. Art expresses and translates; art acknowledges and reveals, art transfers and art intervenes.

6. Art as a form of creation. The act of creation is what gives artists a special power. They are allowed to make statements about things which they have come to recognize and they accomplish this by giving the world something new to ponder. There is an unending amount of beauty in this world and it is the responsibility of the artist to effectively capture and display this beauty to the world.

D. TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IN ART - Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender Equality

Gender equality by 2030 requires urgent action to eliminate the many root causes of discrimination that still curtail women’s rights in private and public spheres. For example, discriminatory laws need to change and legislation adopted to proactively advance equality. The two targets below are just two areas of the many target of gender equality which will be focused on in this module.

∙ End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

∙ Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.

Gender Gap in the Art Industry

In the article “International Women’s Day: Gender gap in the art industry” of CGTN

“To be able to train as an artist to make your way in the world it was very difficult for a woman to be a professional artist particularly with societal expectations which continue even today,” Kim Jones, curator of 19th century paintings, U.S. National Gallery of Art said.

In 2014, Georgia O’Keefe sold a painting for almost $45 million, setting a record for an artwork by a female artist. But that’s nothing compared to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which sold in 2017 for $450 million – the highest price ever achieved for artwork sold at auction. Work by Mary Cassatt, a popular painter in the 19th Century, also fetches a lot less than her fellow impressionist Claude Monet at auctions.