PHILOSOPHY OF ART

PHILOSOPHY OF ART

LECTURES
I. The Beauty and the Sublime.
II. Ethics and Aesthetics.
III. Nature and culture.
IV. Aesthetic truth.
V. Postmodernism.

I. THE BEAUTY AND THE SUBLIME

1. AESTHETICS
What is art?
2. THINK AND FEEL
How to approach art?
3. NOT ONLY BEAUTIFUL
Is art only about the beauty?

I. AESTHETICS

TWO APPROACHES
‣ Professional philosophers approach philosophy in
two ways:
1. An historical approach > the study of the
history of ideas that philosophers
developed.
2. A systematic approach > the study of
specific problems.
‣ Aesthetics is like logic, ethics and metaphysics a
subdiscipline of philosophy that can be
approached in both ways.
‣ Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-1762) > the
name giver of the subdiscipline aesthetics.

A CONTESTED DEMARCATION
‣ In everyday life people often raise the question: what is art?
‣ There are regularly public controversies about the demarcation
between art and non-art.
‣ The question ‘what is art?’ is often answered ex negativo > by
indicating what art is not.
‣ Several examples show that:
- Music: the first performanc of the Altenberg Lieder
composed by Alban Berg in 1913 > noise instead of music.
- Literature: the publication of Lolita (1955) written by
Vladimir
Nabokov > porn instead of literature.
- Visual arts: the exhibition of so-called ‘Degenerate Art’
(Entartete Kunst (1937)) in Munich > false instead of true art.

BEYOND ESSENTIALISM
‣ Many philosophers tried to discover the essence
of art.
‣ That was motivated by the question: ‘What is
art?’
‣ The presupposition > by carefully studying what
art is its essence would be brought to light.
‣ Especially modern art shows that this quest is
vain > it is an illusion to think that the properties
of an object make it a work of art.
‣ That is what the Readymades of Marcel
Duchamp show.

MARCEL DUCHAMP
Short biography:
‣ 1887: born January 4 in Balagnysur-Thérain.
‣ 1912: initial study in Paris.
‣ 1914-1919: was a soldier during
World War I.
‣ 1924-1928: close contact with the
Surrealists.
‣ 1941: emigration to the United
States.
‣ 1945: return to Paris.
‣ 1968: died on October 2 in Neuilly.

ART ABOUT ART
‣ The revolutionary part of Duchamp’s
art is that he brought up art for
discussion.
‣ In 1913 he did so by exhibiting a
bicylce wheel (Roue de Bicyclette) that
he had found (objet trouvé).
‣ When he exhibited in 1917 a urinal
titled Fountain and signed with
R[ichard] Mutt it caused a shock.
‣ Question: does the context determine
whether something is art?
‣ Readymades establish a kind of art
about art.

WHEN
‣Inspired by artists like Duchamp Nelson Goodman
(1906-1998) in Ways of Worldmaking (1978)
suggests to replace the question ‘what is art?’ by
the question ‘when is art?’.
‣It seems to be useful to examine when and under
which circumstances an object receives the status
of art.
‣The when-question draws attention to the object
and its context, but neglects the subject that
perceives the object.
‣New question: what is an aesthetic experience?

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE
‣A central question in contemporary aesthetics:
what is the difference between an aesthetic
experience and a non-aesthetic experience?
‣Starting point: the experiences that a person
gains from reading a novel, listening to a piece of
music that moved him or her, or a painting that
he or she likes are different from daily
experiences.
‣Before one addresses the issue of aesthetic
experience one should deal with two
philosophers that had an essentialist view of art.

PLATO (427-347 v. Chr.)
Major works:
‣The Parmenides.
‣The Protagoras.
‣The Timaeus.
‣The Republic.
‣The Laws.
‣The Symposium.
‣The Apology.
‣The Phaedo.
‣The Crito.

THE TRUTH AND THE BEAUTY
‣ There are few philosophers who have sent so
many contradictory messages about art as Plato.
‣ On het one hand in The Symposium: “If there is
anything that makes life worth living, then it is
the contemplation about the beauty.”
‣ On the other hand Plato argues in The Republic
that art is incompatible with the process of
establishing the truth.
‣ Truth for him has nothing to do with
correspondence, but with the ‘being’ of a thing.
‣ A thing is more truth when it comes closer to an
idea.

THE ESSENCE
‣ The world of ideas is the true state of being > ideas are in time
and space invariably and therefore the essence of everything.
‣ The mortal and therefore the changing world is not really relevant
> for Plato not the actual tulips, but the idea of the tulip is
relevant.
‣ Ideas are the archetypes of all that there is; they are the essence.
‣ Plato distinguishes two types of artists:
1. Those who create something > a blacksmith, cartwright
or an architect.
2. Those who express or imitate (mimesis) something > a
painter, sculptor or poet.
‣ The former are closer to the truth, because they have an idea in
their mind that they try to realize.
‣ The other artists don’t depict the being, but its appearance > they
provide nothing more than a shadow of a dream.

SENSUAL PLEASURE IS DANGEROUS
‣ The beauty arouses the desire to know ideas.
‣ The idea of the beauty coincides with the idea
of the truth.
‣ Art can wake the desire to the highest value >
the truth.
‣ However, sometimes this desire is already
satisfied when the appearance of the beauty is
observed.
‣ Because this sensual pleasure frustrates the
process of establishing the truth, Plato is
ultimately negative about art.

ARISTOTELES (384-324 v. Chr.)
Major works:
‣Categories.
‣On Interpretation.
‣Nicomachean Ethics.
‣Politica.
‣Poetics.
‣Rhetoric.
‣Physics.
‣Metaphysics.
‣On the Soul.

MIMESIS
‣ Like Plato, Aristotle sees art as the expression or
imitation (mimesis) of something.
‣ However, Aristotle gives it a positive connotation.
‣ That is because he rejects Plato’s notion of the
truth.
‣ According to Aristotle ideas don’t dwell in a
separate world, but they are part of reality > they
are housed in things and give shape to them.
‣ Aristotle argues that it is the task of the artist not
to copy reality one-to-one > they have “to say what
really happened, but what could happen.”

THE GENERAL AND THE PARTICULAR
‣ Although tragedies depict historical figures, they
always show how people in certain situations
could act.
‣ The purpose is not to express the particular but
the general > the typical.
‣ Therefore the poet is closer to the truth than the
historian.
‣ Artists should have the freedom not to copy
reality blindly > it is all about the effects that a
tragedy has on the spectators.
‣ Effect is sorted when what is represented is
credible.

PERFORMATIVITY
‣ Art is according to Aristotle not only about the truth,
but also about the effect.
‣ Aristotle emphasizes, in other words, the
performativity of works of art.
‣ The tragedy evokes both pity and fear and thus ensures
a pleasurable purification (katharsis) of these emotions.
‣ For Plato art is odious because it evokes these kind of
emotions.
‣ Aristotle seeks a balance between reason and emotions
> in certain circumstances it wouldn’t be reasonable if
someone is not very angry.
‣ It is for instance appropriate to be in the case of
injustice angry.

II. THINK AND FEEL

IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)
Major works:
‣ Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1781).
‣ Prolegomena (1783).
‣ Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der
Sitten (1785).
‣ Kritik der praktischen Vernunft
(1788).
‣ Kritik der Urteilskraft (1783).
‣ Zum ewigen Frieden (1795).
‣ Die Metaphysik der Sitten (1797).

RATIONALISM AND EMPIRICISM
‣ Due to Aristotle art was seen as rule-governed behaviour.
‣ In the 17th century rationalism concluded that the beauty
can ge generated if one apply certain rules.
‣ In Engeland they struggled against an overly rational
approach to art > there they presented an aesthetic view
that does justice to what people feel (Shaftesbury,
Hutcheson, Burke).
‣ Empiricism > beautiful is what is perceived as such.
‣ David Hume: the beauty is finally experiencing the pleasure
one has when one observes an object.
‣ Kant tries to bridge the gap between the two positions.

A DISINTERESTED WELL-BEING
‣ The beauty is not linked to the object nor to the subject
that observes.
‣ Although pleasure is important when it comes to the
aesthetic experience, it is not the same kind of pleasure
that is evoked by the good or something that is just
pleasant.
‣ Something is good with regard to a predetermined goal and
something is just pleasant, because it stimulates the senses
in an unmediated positive way.
‣ The pleasure of the beauty is a disinterested pleasure (ein
interesseslose Wohlgefallen).
‣ Because the aesthetic experience is free of interests, it
transcends particular interests.

THE GENIUS
‣ The beauty often arouses the desire of people to
convince others about a specific aesthetic judgment.
‣ Taste is relevant for the assessment of art.
‣ For the creation of good art one needs the genius.
‣ The genius > a person that creates and prescribes a new
rule in art.
‣ Unlike science art is not simply about the application of
rules (methods).
‣ The genius raises new standards.
‣ Pablo Picasso is a good example, because he introduced
new rules for painting.

Short biography:
‣ 1881: born October in Malaga.
PABLO PICASSO
‣ 1891: first drawing lessons from his father.
‣ 1895: starts to study at the art academy in
Barcelona.
‣ 1900: for the first time in Paris.
‣ 1904-1908: stay in Paris where he meets
among others Apollinaire, Matisse, Braque,
Derain en Kahnweiler.
‣ 1910: stay with Derain in Cadaqués.
‣ 1911-1913: stay with Braque and Gris in Cérat.
‣ 1925: participates in an exhibition of the
surrealists.
‣ 1973: died April 8 in Mougins.

CONSTRUCTIVISM
‣ Picasso created several times a new visual
language, i.e. rules for making images.
‣ For instance, together with Juan Gris and
George Braque he introduced Cubism.
‣ The visual language of Cubism is indirectly
influenced by Kant.
‣ Not what is observed, but the
construction of the person who perceives
something from a specific angle is the
starting point.
‣ Cubist artists depict an object from
different perspectives, analyses it and
reassembles it by the construction of
geometric forms > so one can do justice to
the perception of a three-dimensional
world on a two-dimensional canvas.
• I

III. NOT ONLY BEAUTIFUL

BEYOND BEAUTY
‣In the 18th and 19th century philosophers
developed concepts that go beyond the beauty.
‣They focus most often on two concepts: the ugly
and the sublime.
‣Karl Rosenranz (1805-1879) developed an
aesthetics of the ugly > Ästhetik des Häßlichen
(1853).
‣Art that just wants to be beautiful, lapses easily
into ornaments en limits its own possibilities of
expression.

WHAT CANNOT BE GRASPED
‣Edmund Burke (1729-1797) inspired Kant with his
distinction of the beauty and the sublime.
‣The sublime is an aesthetic quality that refers to the
inconceivable of what is big.
‣Whereas the beauty is about well-proportioned
forms, the sublime refers to terrifying and irregular
forms.
‣The beauty > harmony between imagination and
reason.
‣The sublime > disharmony between imagination
and reason.
‣It is especially Barnett Newman that gives
expression to that.

BARNETT NEWMAN
Short biography:
‣ 1905: born January 29 in New York.
‣ 1922-1926: studies at Cornell University
(Ithaca) and the Art Student’s League
(New York).
‣ 1927-1937: works at home with his
parents.
‣ 1948: establishes with William Baziotes,
Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko the
art school ‘Subjects of the Artists’.
‣ 1959: leads the ‘Artists Workshop’ of the
de University of Saskatchewan.
‣ 1962-1964: professor at the University of
Pennsylvania.
‣ 1970: died on June 4 in New York.

CONTRA FORMALIS
‣ Newman opposes all kinds of formalism in
art.
‣ So he says the following about his famous
Who’s afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue
(1967/1968): “Just as I had confronted other
dogmatic positions of the purists, neoplasticists
and other formalists, I was now in
confrontation with their dogma, which had
reduced red, yellow and blue into an ideadidact,
or at best had made them
pittoresque. Why give in to these purists and
formalists who have put a mortgage on red,
yellow and blue, transforming these colors
into an idea that destroys them as colors? I
had therefore, the double incentive of using
these colors to express what I wanted to do
of making these colors expressive rather
than didactic, and of freeing them form the
mortgage. Why should anybody be afraid of
red, yellow and blue? www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QnrXJghoU

JEAN-FRANÇOIS LYOTARD (1924-1998)
MAJOR WORKS
‣ La Phénomenologie (1954).
‣ Discours, figure (1971).
‣ Economie libidinale (1974).
‣ Les transformations Duchamp (1977).
‣ La condition postmoderne. Rapport sur
le savoir (1979).
‣ Le différend (1983).
‣ Le postmoderne expliqué aux enfants
(1986).
‣ L 'inhumain. Causeries sur le temps
(1988).
‣ Leçons sur l'analytique du sublime.
Kant, Critique de la faculté de juger
(1991).

THE EVENT
‣ The ‘now’ is sandwiched between what has
happened and what is yet to come.
‣ Lyotard wants to do justice to the event that is
in between the not yet and the not-more.
‣ His question: how can something be present?
‣ This is a question of being and time and evokes
another question: why is there something at
all?
‣ This is simply incomprehensible, something
that one cannot grasp.

THE POWER OF THE INTANGIBLE
‣ Art can let one feel what is intangible, what one
cannot grasp.
‣ Lyotard argues that that is the task of art.
‣ The sublime, according to him, is the evocation of
the present time and what cannot be grasped with
language.
‣ Just when one tries to express it in words, it
vanishes.
‣ Lyotard refers to an essay of Barnet Newman: The
Sublime is Now (1948).
‣ He argues: “That here and now there is an image,
than rather nothing, that is the sublime”.

To see:
RECOMMENDATIONS
‣ Marcel Duchamp >
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cuqni9rqHw
‣ Pablo Picasso >
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjlq85R_mcQ&feature
=endscreen
‣ Barnett Newman >
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qn-rXJghoU
To read:
‣ Plato > The Symposium.
‣ Immanuel Kant > Critique of Judgment (1783).
‣ Nelson Goodman > Ways of Worldmaking (1978).