Philosophy of Art Midterm 2 fall 2019

Aesthetic Attitude

"Basic requirement for appreciating any work of art" "...is one of openness to new sensory experiences...an attitude of wonder and a predisposition to generally apprehend sensory things positively" "An aesthetic attitude entails a certain degree of general trust... a trust that the art world and those in it are generally people of goodwill whose desire it is to make and show work that they sincerely believe is of interest and import...a trust that artists and museum curators and gallery owners are not out to dupe us and that they do not take us to be fools who can be duped" (88) -aesthetic apprehension

terry berret chapter 4 intro

"To appreciate a work of art is to apprehend it with enjoyment" (87)

poems

DOES recognize that the poem has intent behind it, that 'the words of a poem come out of a head, not out of a hat,' but for the critic to get answers to the question of intention, it should simply be in the poem itself. 'If the poet succeeded in doing it, then the poem itself shows what he was trying to do.' Otherwise the poem is inadequate evidence of what would be the said intention, because the critic would then have to seek outside the piece. Continues to say a poem 'should not mean but be' The author creates the poem. The critic looks at it as if it were a will or contract. The critic doesn't look into his own self to create meaning- views it objectively. **** the poem belongs to the public ****

does Description constitute interpretation?

Description does not constitute interpretation

who is the author? Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author

The author is a scriptor, one who is meant to create the work, but not to explain it-- the scriptor is 'born simultaneously with the text, is in no way equipped with a being preceding or exceeding the writing, [and] is not the subject with the book as predicate."

all hidden content is what according to freud

latent conent

all observable contetn according to freud is what

maifest content

Type of interpretation sontang is not talking about:

making sense of the world, interpreting a picture of parallel train tracks as parallel and not converging

subject what is it

the same as topic or theme, subset of meaning

what is the formula for meaning?

subject matter+medium+form+context

Abstract:

the simplification and stylization that occurs when rendering images and objects. In this sense, all art is abstract according to TB

-Conventions

- invented ways to show things and ideas, they are approximations s

Chapter 3 into terry barrett

-"Activities of describing, interpreting, and judging are interdependent...how and what we describe is highly influenced by how we interpret and judge it" (56) -"...to work with contemporary art is to understand that new ideas require a great deal of patience and openness. Art is a language, a means of communicating deeply held ideas and beliefs, and to dismiss that which we do not like because we do not understand it makes no more sense than ignoring German or Chinese literature because we cannot read German or Chinese" (62)

Conclusion of Ch. 2 terry barrett

-Description and Interpretation are interdependent -"There are no descriptive facts without interpretive theory. What we describe as relevant in the painting is dependent on our interpretation of the painting" (53). -"This part-to-whole relationship (referring to interpreting the whole and interpreting parts of the whole) is known as the 'Hermeneutic circle" of interpretation...the hermeneutic circle is a reminder of the interdependency of interpretation and description" (53).

Distinction between the use of the word 'art' as a descriptive term or evaluative term

-Descriptive - example correctly identifying a piece of art as art (i.e. identifying a cherry pie as a cherry pie) -Evaluative - claiming a piece of art to be a work of art (i.e. a fantastic piece of art)

Two Kinds of Inquiry About Art, pg. 377 [NR]

-Did the artist achieve his intentions? -Should the art be undertaken at all? -This is called artistic criticism

Norman Rockwell (Ideologically Controversial)

-"Because Rockwell's work was for so long denied interpretive thought, because it was judged to have too little to offer when it was interpreted, it provides a striking example of how interpretation and judgment are interdependent" (68) -Negative criticism of his works really center around him neglecting the truth of the human condition and American life. He presented a highly idealized version of the US. -Supporters of Rockwell refute those negative claims by stating Rockwell simply chose to present the virtues of the American life and the potential for a near utopian society through practicing those virtues. -"Life as I would like it to be" -"Norman Rockwell reminds us of our humor and humility, our happiness and humanity" (70) -He embraced nostalgia His son, Peter, goes on to state Rockwell, "believed that the picture and the observer should encounter each other directly without interference from words or interpretation" (70) Claims that he invented Democratic History Painting: -"An artistic practice based on an informing vision of history as a complex, ongoing field events that occurs at eye level - of history conceived and portrayed as the cumulative actions of millions of ordinary human beings, living in historical time, growing up and growing old" (71) -His works heavily influenced George Horace Lorimer, the Saturday Evening Post, Extremely popular paper with "unparalleled dominance of...one of the first truly mass-market periodicals in the US...an unusually powerful opportunity to shape the beliefs and attitudes of Americans" (73)

Interpretive content in susan sontang

-'The task of interpretation is virtually one of translation.' -First occurs when scientific enlightenment was introduced→ led to the need to question the credibility of myths -As with ancient texts, once they were in questioning, 'the ancient texts were, in their pristine form, no longer acceptable.' Reconciled to 'modern demands' -The thought is basically that there is the discrepancy between the meaning of the text and later, more modern readers. -SO there is a situation: the text is unacceptable, but it is too valuable, 'too precious' to rid of, so -'The interpreter, without actually erasing or rewriting the text, is altering it.' (but those who do so cannot admit to this, but claim to be 'reading off a sense that is already there' -Even goes on to say that the older style of interpretation was more respectful; 'it erected another meaning on top of the literal one'; whereas modern style destroys: 'it digs 'behind' the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one' -Interpretation is not all bad, but 'the effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities....interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.' -'To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of 'meanings'...it is to turn the world into this world.' -nterpretation is not all bad, but 'the effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities....interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.' -'To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of 'meanings'...it is to turn the world into this world.' -Says that by interpreting art, we are reducing it, making it 'manageable, comfortable.' -Uses Franz Kafka, who is a German novelist that typically featured bizarre or surrealistic predicaments in his work, as an example with many instances of different interpretations -'Never trust the teller, trust the tale'- Lawrence Interpretation is a dissatisfaction of the work-- a desire to replace it with something else, but it violates art. -Interpretation not always successful: Art can avoid interpretation by becoming a parody, becoming abstract, or being merely decorative. -'Abstract painting is the attempt to have, in the ordinary sense, no content; since there is no content, there can be no interpretation. Pop Art works by the opposite means to the same result; using a content so blatant, so 'what it is,' it, too, ends by being uninterpretable.' -'Ideally, it is possible to elude the interpreters in another way, by making works of art whose surface is so unified and clean, whose momentum is so rapid, whose address is so direct that the work can be...just what it is' -'This is why cinema must be alive' 8: content provokes interpretation; form should be given more attention. -First thing you do: Ask what it means

A Bar at the Folies Bergere by Manet

-A piece discussed in class, an example of a piece with many different interpretations and understandings. Some feminist, a lot of interpretation based off of the expression of the girl -The painting is rich in details which provide clues to social class and milieu. The woman at the bar is a real person, known as Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s. For his painting, Manet posed her in his studio. By including a dish of oranges in the foreground, Manet identifies the barmaid as a prostitute, according to art historian Larry L. Ligo, who says that Manet habitually associated oranges with prostitution in his paintings -fruit and flowers were often also associated with womens sexuality -hands exposed= sexually promiscuous for the time, a womans hands had to be gloved at all times, to go about ungloved was akin to beig physically naked -reflection wrong -male gaze, can see all of woman, she looks bored, is a prostitute -trapeze person in back -could be about manets impending death -cafes/ bars popular at the time -lower middle class emerging -very tight clothes=prostitute -monet emphasiszed her vagina through the triangle in her clothes, hour shaped figure -Deception of the eye -This painting to this day generates immense amounts of diverse interpretations on the Barmaid, Paris's modernization affecting the painting, Manet's imminent death, the mirror, the bar, the man in the top hat, and the form of the painting -"Manet did not copy nature at all closely...everything was abbreviated" (48) -"Recent historians assume that Manet intentionally made the mirror the way it is" The work's subject matter - the mirror, the bar, etc... -The work's form - how it is composed and painted

Willem de Kooning - two women series (add more) read chapter 4

-Abstract expressionism = art informel (1946) -Combo of expression and abstraction -What unites the work of these artists is a fierce attachment to psychic self-expression. -The work is also united in its marked contrast to art that immediately preceded it.. -Critics wanted action painting -The canvas is an arena to act in -Paintings that eternally seem to be coming before the eyes of the viewer -Kooning's paintings about creating a new order amid the glaring chaos...less about expansion and dissolution of traditional painting

Objectification, pg. 379 [NR]

-Aesthetic art is the objectification of feelings -Artist corrects the objectification when it is not adequate, so the artist must ask whether or not they know what the standard is to disown or accept the artwork (self)

Allusiveness, pg. 384-385 [NR]

-Allusiveness is a critical issue in illustrating intentionalism -One must inquire by either... -Asking oneself whether or not a poet was thinking/alluding about/to another poet -Asking the poet personally whether or not they were thinking/alluding about/to another poet

Sean Scully

-Arranges various rectangles and squares, with differing colors, to form an abstraction -Genius overpainting (color) creating a murky atmosphere. -"Scully can be seen as relying entirely on two elements: the vertical and the horizontal, each of which is given a single attribute - the color is either light or dark" -Restricts himself to only a few visual motifs -Scully himself claims that his works are metaphors of life. -Very Much about power struggles -Many allude to interpersonal relationships -Refuses to give literal explanations of his works or his experiences -Wants his work to be about life

Critics claim sully synthesizes what and what?

-Critics claim he synthesizes abstract expressionism and minimalism -AE - "have transcendent aspirations in that they seem to want to take us to the emotions of the artist and the existence of the world beyond the canvas -M - calls attention to quiddity, seeing art as a thing in itself, and not as a narrative nor as an expression of the artist's psychological state at the time of composition, and not as a metaphor.

Wimsatt and Beardsley, "The Intentional Fallacy", Epistemic point:

-Hard to know what someone meant or intended..."Judging a poem is like judging pudding / machine..." -Poem is detached from an author at birth Goes about the world beyond the author's power to intend / control it...belongs to the public now. -Evaluation of the work remains public - work measured against something outside the author Criticism of the work vs. criticism of author's psychology

Sleep Walker & Birthday Boy & Slumber Party - Eric Fischl (Sexually Controversial) Terry Barrett

-Highly sexual paintings (obviously) -"...controversy centers almost exclusively on the content of Mr. Fischl's work rather than its form" (64) -Barrett calls these "narratively ambiguous because their stories are not clear" (65)

susan sontang against interpertation

-Imitation of reality -With the beginning theories of art, the value of art also came into question, now challenging art to 'justify itself'

tb Ofili - Holy Virgin Mary (Religiously Controversial)

-In short, Ofili and the publicly funded Brooklyn Museum came under scrutiny due to his painting exhibiting supposed "impious" and "degrading" material. -Ofili and the Brooklyn Museum won the ensuing legal brawl. -Barrett essentially uses this situation to describe how controversial art can be, which in turn, allows for increased interpretations of art. -However, given the susceptibility of art to controversy, Barrett discerns the true nature behind what truly makes art controversial, "Works of art, in themselves, are not controversial...people make them controversial" (64) -Homo Censorious (the mayor and cardinal) is also involved here: An individual who seeks to censor what he/she believes is unhealthy for public viewing. They are essentially monists - their view is the right view. -"Aesthetic judgments are sometimes based on Moral Criteria" (86) Barrett also uses this situation to segway into a major point of the chapter: your judgment will definitively influence your description, thus influencing your interpretation. "Judgment, for these viewers, superseded the need for interpretation" (84)

who's meaning matters? HIRSCH, "In the defense of the author"

-Information theory-- theory of semantics -- cast aside author→ all must be contrived of the text of the literature in question ('authorial irrelevance') Independent meaning **THE CRITICS** Discusses how, though the author's intentions were cast aside, the text still had to represent somebody's meaning- if not the author's, then the critic's. So this idea that he is pointing out is, even though they did rule out the author, 'it became fashionable to talk about a critic's reading of a text...the author had been banished, the critique still remained.' -Goes on to point out this round robin sequence of 'if the best meaning were not the author's, then it would have to be the critic's-- in which case they would then be the author of the best meaning...whenever meaning is attached to a sequence of words, it is impossible to escape the author.'

Rothko

-Interpreter doesn't erase the painting, but he alters it through the interpretation of the painting. The modern style of interpretation EXCAVATES. It DIGS and DESTROYS in the process -She is not saying that works of art are ineffable and that they cannot be described. They can be. The question is how. What would it look like if it served the art as opposed to usurping it. -First, we need more attention to form in art. If excessive focus on content provokes the arrogance of interpretation, more extended and more thorough descriptions of form would be silenced. -She also claims that we lack the proper language and vocabulary to correctly discuss the form of an artwork....this lack of vocabulary directly lead to criticism usurping art's place in the world rather than serving art. -She calls for descriptive rather than prescriptive. We need a sharp, loving description about the appearance of art. -Sontag is annoyed by people who are probing the work to try and understand their meaning -STOP, JUST LOOK AT THE THING

Two Claims in "The Intentional Fallacy", pg. 374 [NR]

-Knowledge of an artist's intentions is irrelevant to the evaluation of what the artist has achieved. -Knowledge of an artist's intentions is irrelevant to the interpretation of what the artist has achieved.

Kara Walker and Michael Ray Charles (Racially controversial art)

-Mass producing images showcasing racial stereotypes to "control black people within white society as well as justify taking over their african territories" (76) -Walker -Very graphic art -"Walker's art to be about history, 'specifically black history and how its telling and retellings have altered the African-American experience" (78) -Charles -"Charles uses stereotypical racist images of blacks found in visual culture in the US that are associated with slavery, southern black folklore, and nineteenth-century minstrel shows" (79) -"It is frequently black viewers who are the most offended by Walker's work" (82) -The controversy -Individuals like Walker and Charles, "are making their reputations and large sums of money off of their own people's suffering, are repeating monotonous themes to exhaustion, and are catering to the base interest of white curators and collectors" (82) -Supporters -"...Walker transformed her pain into art.." (82) Supporters believe artists like these two, "have the courage to deal with the weighty subject of historical domination and exploitation...to wrestle with the legacy of tainted imagery that the non-visual world chooses to ignore, subsume, or reject" (82) -"Interpretation is at the heart of these controversies about the use of racist stereotypes of blacks by Walker and charles" (83)

what does barrett say about interpertations?

Barrett says.... Multiple interpretations are more desirable than single interpretations. Kraut vehemently disagrees.

Terry Barrett-Luncheon on the grass - Manet (impressionist)

-Not depicting platonic beauty - the individuals in his paintings are NOT depicted with overwhelming beauty (the norms of his day). Rather, he presented the individuality of each person to highlight the importance of one's own idiosyncrasies and distinctions. 19th century Paris - painting generated controversy "...Juxtaposition of of the nude and the clothes men out of doors offended contemporary morality, especially since Manet did not elevate the subject with an allegorical title" (pg 40) -TB uses this painting to compare our current standards of "acceptable" art to the standards of art during Manet's time... this is a huge introductory point to how TB believes we should interpret art (with consideration to the artist's relative setting) -painted whatever he wanted for aesthetic effect alone

Intention in Poems, pg. 375-376 [NR]

-Poems succeed at delivering the intention of the artist -What is said or implied is relevant to the work -The poem is not the critic's own or the author's own, for it belongs to the public

Georges Seurat, "Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"

-Point/stippled painting style. -Theoretically creates more vibrant hues of colors (I think thats what he said) -Why did he configure this that way? Then we start discussing the upper class representation in the painting.... And we stray away from the material again.

Gustav Klimt, "The Kiss"

-Potentially a study in intimacy -Between the faces and the gestures, it seems as though it is a study on human intimacy.... Consider the context of Vienna in the early 1900's...... "This piece has been radically misunderstood. People who see this as a study in the joy of sensual connectedness are wrong." He proceeds to tell a story to interpret this as if he is forcing himself upon her. According to him, her right hand is scratching to free herself, and her left hand is struggling to lift his hand off of her. Her face is a face of unhappiness.... He says "MAYBE I'M WRONG." But in any case, he is saying that it is possible to understand this painting incorrectly. He tells a story about the context of Vienna at the time, full of crisis and negativity, and this is supposed to be a representation of that crisis period according to him. Notice that 'wrong' implies that there is a single right answer We may never be sure what the correct meaning is.... but there is one! This is what Kraut calls monism

Scully identifies particular themes in his work including:

-Power -Survival -Competition -Tyranny of perfection -Staircases and ladders -Masculinity and femininity

Abstraction

-Refers to the simplification and stylization that occurs when rendering images and objects -All art is abstract because nothing can be rendered in its full reality -Reduction of reality -Stylization of reality -Can be thought of representational, nonobjective, or nonrepresentational -Abstraction in art is a choice..it is purposeful...causes different perceptions and realizations.

Edvard Munch, "The Scream"

-Sontag says that when you look into the meaning of the painting too deeply you are no longer looking at the painting but instead the interpretation of the painting. -Scream is said to be a study in anxiety, but as you look deeper into it being a study of anxiety you begin to drift away from considering the actual painting itself. -Sontag believes it is wrong to start off looking for the representational content of the painting because eventually you will end up talking about the representational content as opposed to the painting itself.

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, Uses for support:

-Stéphanie Mallarmé, who said "it is language which speaks" -Marcel Proust -The surrealist movement which practiced -"automatic writing"- which is when the writer just writes 'what the head itself is unaware of' -Follows Marx: it is history that makes man, and not man that makes history-- author does not exist prior to or outside of language States "...Baudelaire's work is the failure of Baudelaire the man, Van Gogh's his madness, Tchaikovsky's his voice." → with this view point the creator's work is a direct passage to the creator himself, which actually takes away from the text itself. -The information that isn't even within the work (that involving the author), dictates the work itself. -Speaks in metaphorical conversation -Author's empire is still very powerful... -"language that speaks, not the author" -Author gets suppressed -Language used by the author comes to foreground -Let the language do the talking -Kill the author, but don't kill the environment

Definition of Intention, pg. 375 [NR]

-What the artist designed or planned in their mind -The attitude, feelings, and what made the author design the art are affinities of intention

plato proposed what theory and said what about art

-mimeic theory -art is dubious -everything is an imitiation, so a painting of a bed would merely be an imitiation of an imitiation -for plato art is neither useufl or true

Homo censorious: what does that mean?

-name given to a person that communicates that they know what is best for the public, so it is their job to defend the public from 'bad' material. -Leads to a Paternalistic attitude towards the public.... -It is arrogant and demands that they know what is right or wrong

semantic autonomy , hirsch, "In the defense of the author"

-poses the problem of validity =mental intention of the author from the verbal meaning of the text, -If there is no true meaning to the text (which is what happens when you delete the author, etc), then how can one validate a text? To validate is to correspond that text to some meaning and measure it off of that, but how can there be meaning if there is no particular person imposing meaning. -Uses T.S. Eliot as an interesting example because Eliot would refuse to comment on the meanings of his texts, believing that the author has 'no control over the words he has loosed upon the world.' He did mean something, but it was the task of the reader to discover them. Yes but he also says that the problem with semantic autonomy is not just that it fails to provide adequate criterion of validity, but the faultiness of the argument itself -'It does not matter what -To summarize here, I believe he is saying that linguistic elements cannot hold their own; without the author and/or the critic, the language cannot speak for itself -The authorial intent (of the creator or critic) has everything to do with the meaning that develops from the work

Both plato and artistotle think what

-that art is always figurative underneath the mimetic theory

what two zones does scully work in

-the physical and mundane zone -The art zone and spiritual world

what does barrett think about multiple interpertations?

Barrett thinks that multiple interpretations are possible and better than one

Olympia by Manet

-used a prostitute -critiqued because fully nude, vulgar because of that and because she had an ordinary body -paints all at once with let layer of paint applied on top of exitsting wet paint rather than traditional ways of painting by building up layers of glazed dried up paint -most important quality is its visual qualities -white tones of olympia on white sheets compared to black cat and black woman -racist, using a black servant -manet provoked crtiques and public challenges of thoughts of sex and race, independent sexuality -depicted lower class woman, got critiqed for it -how can u judge something to be good or bad if u dont know what it means? -objectiifes women as sexual objects -until you do the interpertitive work may be very difficult to do the evaluative work/ judgement -Notoriously controversial Presents the goddess venus as notably human -"For Manet, the human figure ceased to be more important than its surroundings and that, by giving import to abstract elements and treating all parts of a painting equally, Manet inspired future generations of artists toward abstraction" (pg 41) -"Manet provoked critics and the public alike by challenging their notions of sex and race" (42) -The real overarching importance of this painting is for TB to show that judgment and interpretations go hand in hand--this is highlighted by the controversy it generated. -"Interpretation building meaning about a work and judgment appraising how good a work is" -"How one understands a work of art, that is, how one interprets the work of art, strongly affects how one will judge its value" (42)

Certain things we need to have in place to have language

1. Lexicon - vocab (finite?) o 2. Syntax - grammar/grammatical rules o 3. Semantics - meaning/rules of interpretation

Ilia Kazan

A Streetcar Named Desire had to be about something · "It doesn't matter whether artists intend, or don't intend, for their works to be interpreted." Pg. 462

Aesthetic apprehension

A unique view of the world and that view is valued in itself...may prompt utilitarian action." (88)

what is abstraction in art

Any image of a real thing is necessarily an abstraction of that thing: abstraction in art is a matter of degree

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, claims what

Claims, to give the text an author, which would assign a single interpretation, 'is to impose a limit on that text.'

Rules in Language/ the three components of language

Components of Language (3) - 1.Vocabulary (Lexicon) basic items > bigger items 2.Syntactic Rules (grammatical/ grammar) 3.Semantics interpretations/meanings) Same as dialect? No, just aids in understanding of content I s there an order for components? Not necessarily

Contextualist v Formalist interpretation of A Bar at the Folies Bergere by Manet

Contextualist v Formalist interpretation of this work: C - "...A work of art can only be fully understood and appreciated if it is seen within social and cultural history, as well as aesthetically" F - "...The only thing important in a painting is with what aesthetic effect the paint is arranged on the canvas"

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, draws an analogy between what

Draws an analogy between text and textiles, therefore in order to 'liberate a text, readers must separate a literary work from its creator.

Early theorists talked about in Susan Sontang

Early theorists: -Plato: thought that the value of art was dubious-- 'art is neither particularly useful...nor, in the strict sense, true...' -Aristotle: disputes Plato's idea that art is useless-- 'art has a certain value...it is a form of therapy. Art is useful, after all...medicinally useful in that it arouses and purges dangerous emotions.' ^^both agree that art is always figurative, but in opposition to Plato's stance is the matter of abstract art

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author background

French literary critic and theorist Severing of the author and authorship

Idea of content as a hindrance in susan sontang

Goes on to say that 'none of us can ever retrieve that innocence before all theory when art knew no need to justify itself...from now to the end of consciousness, we are stuck with the task of defending art.' But content is a hindrance, 'a subtle or not so subtle philistinism' (philistinism is a derogatory term used in the field of philosophy and aesthetics that refers to someone who does not value art) Ideas lead to straying away from art appreciation

What is the difference between Wimsatt and Beardsley and Barthes??

I would say the main difference is that W&B speak more of artist's' intention as invalid to the interpretation, whereas Barthes goes so far as to say the artist is completely irrelevant to the work itself. He mentions things such as: the author doesn't know what he means, the author's meaning is inaccessible, etc. the language speaks instead of the author

HIRSCH, "In the defense of the author" intro

If not the author or the audience, whose interpretation matters?

Internal and External Evidence in Intention, pg. 380 [NR]

Internal evidence is... 1. Public, or for everyone 2. Habitual knowledge of language, dictionaries, grammar 3. The syntax and semantics of a poem External evidence is... 1. Private, or for the individual, or idiosyncratic (peculiar) 2. Why or how the poet wrote the poem External evidence shades in with intermediate evidence when talking about... 1. The character of the author 2. The private meanings of words or topics

Freud terms of interpretation:

Manifest content: 'all observable phenomena' - what is probed and pushed aside to find Latent content: the 'true meaning...beneath.

scully's aesthetic biography:

Matisse + Mondrian + Rothko = Scully

Extra Information, pg. 384 [NR]

Notes Notes seem to justify themselves as external indexes to the author's intention Eliot Makes the titles for his poems and epigrams somewhat informative Justified his poetic practice in terms of intention Along with other poets, Eliot might be planning too much in his preparation for writing a poem

Transparence

the thing in itself, we need to get back to sensing

Content for sontang

Sontag thinks it's a problem to think that "a work of art is primarily its content"

what is Hermeneutic process:

The process of trying to understand the meaning of something. Interpretation isn't just about the arts

Hermeneutic circle what is it

There is a kind of interdependency. Not only does this word contribute to the meaning of a sentence.... But the sentence also contributes to the meaning of the word! The way you describe the work depends on the interpretation, the way you interpret the work depends on your description.

idea of mimesis in susan sontang

Through these theories of (mimesis or representation-which she says all Western reflections upon art have worked within the confines of these two), art has to be defensive → and 'it is the defense of art which gives birth to the odd vision by which something we have learned to call 'form' is separated off from something we have learned to call 'content' and to the well-intentioned move which makes content essential and form accessory." States that a work of art is its content

Arguments:

We should not lay an interpretive grid over art (be it political, religious, activist, etc.) o Ex: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (film) said to be about communism · "The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs "behind" the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one." Pg. 460 · "Whatever it may have been in the past, the idea of content is today mainly a hindrance, a nuisance, a subtle or not so subtle philistinism." Pg 459 · "[Interpretation] is the revenge of the intellect upon the art world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world - in order to set up a shadow world of 'meanings.'" · Interpretation rampant in literature

Interpretation according to Sontag:

a conscious act of mind which illustrates a certain code...plucking a set of elements from the whole work

Holism

a holistic system is one where the variables depend on one another

Reduction:

all rendering is simplified

meaning requries what, HIRSCH, "In the defense of the author"

conciousness -No magic land of meanings outside of consciousness" - Hirsch -When meaning is connected to words, a person is making the connection, and the particular meanings he lends to them are never the only legitimate ones under the norms and conventions of his language.

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author

argues that texts should be judged without any reference to the author's intentions, or really anything to do with the author -With writing, 'disconnection occurs, the voice loses its origin, the author enters into his own death, (and thus) writing begins.' "The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding in us' -The author is a scriptor, one who is meant to create the work, but not to explain it-- the scriptor is 'born simultaneously with the text, is in no way equipped with a being preceding or exceeding the writing, [and] is not the subject with the book as predicate." -Utilizes the example of Honoré de Balzac's story Sarrasine, which is in the perspective of a male protagonist who mistakes a castrato (which I looked up and it is defined as 'a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto-- translates to 'one who never reaches sexual maturity') for a woman and falls in love with him. Barthe then asks readers to determine who is actually speaking, and what of-- then states "we can never know."

Aesthetic attitude

basic requirement for viewing art - openness to new sensory experiences. Attitude of wonder; apprehend sensory things positively

Director of museum's response to Ofili painting controversy:

bottom of pg. 62 "to work with contemporary art is to understand that new ideas require a great deal of patience and openness. Art is a language, a means of communicating deeply held ideas and beliefs, and to dismiss that which we do not like because we do not understand it makes no more sense than ignoring German or Chinese literature because we cannot read German or Chinese."

Kafka

different interpreted lenses forced on his work

Mimesis

imitation of reality

Stylization:

individual looks/styles to works by different artists

philistinism

is a derogatory term used in the field of philosophy and aesthetics that refers to someone who does not value art

What does artistotle believe about art

it is a form of therapy, purges dangerous emotions -therefore useful, unlike platos thought

what did the mimeic theory challenge art to do

justify itself

what is the difference between content and meaning

none in TB -however, all works of art have content, and that content must be interperted in order to arrive at meaning

what does sontang argue really matters

not what it means/its content but its form, how it is what it is

Describing

observation and putting the piece into words, saying what a piece is

what is form

refers to the compositional decisions the artist had made in making and presnting a work of art. i.e. how it is composed. how it uses formal elements -all art has form

Homo censorious

represents all persons who would censor what other people might otherwise see, self-righteous, paternalistic, adamant, certain of own interpretation of works and refuses to consider alternatives, thinks others are incapable of deciding what is good/bad for them 1. Takes elements out of context o 2. paternalism o 3. Overestimates the power of exposure (immediate and irreversible consequences) o Problems: empirical psychological questions vs. assumptions, treats people with disrespect, fails to explain consequences or show evidence o Example: Mayor about Ofili piece - had not seen piece but bashed it and said it should be removed because he believed it represented Catholic-bashing and hate-speech · Critical discourse - what people say when they are evaluating, involves description and interpretation · Hermeneutics - the process of interpretation/determining meaning

Interpreting

saying what a piece means

Judging/Evaluating

saying whether a piece is good or worthwhile

Ineffable

something that can't be described in words

counter to who's meaning matters in hirsch, "In the defense of the author"

that the meaning of a text can even change over time for the author- - BUT the meaning doesn't actually change per se, the author's feelings do. 'The phenomenon of changing authorial responses is important because it illustrates the difference between textual meaning and what is loosely termed a 'response' to text' Ex: authorial repudiation ^ -Defines 2 things when explaining: Meaning: that which is represented by a text- it is what the author meant by his use of a particular sign sequence- what the signs represent -Significance: names a relationship between that meaning and a person, or a conception, or a situation, or anything imaginable ^^what changes when an author's attitude towards their work changes is their relationship to the meaning of the text An event that could occur is an author remarking (and in the text he says, 'he, (the author), would have to tell us' [for us to know the meaning had changed for them BUT he uses that example ^^ as evidence that a sequence of linguistic signs can represent more than one complex of meaning. This is all Hirsch proposing a situation for readers, one in which he goes on to say is 'quite improbable' (also talks about how it can lead to a lot of confusion for readers, etc.) Concludes that 'the author's re-evaluation of his text's significance does NOT change its meaning, and further, that arguments which rely on such examples are not effective weapons for attacking either the stability or the normative authority of the author's original meaning' ← All of this is rejecting the idea of this as a valid argument to nix the author

What was the earliest theory of art?

the Greek philosophers who said art = mimesis

Intention

the design or plan in the author's mind

Hermeneutic circle

the interdependency of description and interpretation, must like we must understand words to understand a sentence but also the sentence as context for understanding the meanings of words

what is subject matter

the recognizable stuff in a work of art, persons, places, things, and so forth -some abstract art does not have subject matter -not the same as subject

Manet

work honored in history because he didn't idealize subjects, depicted the particularity of individuals

are Description and interpretation interdependent

yeah