Philosophy Midterm

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IMITATION THEORY OF ART

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- Art imitates life, so art works try to accurately resemble real life objects, persons, events, etc., and this imitation evokes an aesthetic (artistic) response in the observer/audience.
- Problems: Most art does not "imitate" anything (e.g., absolute music, abstract paintings and sculpture, architecture, etc.) -> leaves out many objects that we consider to be art ("too narrow"). Also, much art does try to imitate something, but no one knows what the object/event/person looks like (such as God, or a historical figure, etc.)

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REPRESENTATIONAL THEORY OF ART

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- Getting around the problem of art imitating unknown objects (such as God, etc.) by claiming that art works "represent" something, without having to imitate it: that is, a painting of God tries to represent God, but it clearly can't imitate God (since no one knows what God looks like).
- Problems: the same problem discussed with respect to the Imitation theory also arises for this theory; that is, the Representation theory is also "too narrow". Much art is not representational, such as architecture, design patterns in furniture, abstract music, etc. For example, what does DuChamp's sculpture "Fountain" represent (since it is simply a urinal put on a pedestal)?

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NEO-REPRESENTATIONAL OF ART

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- Resolving the problem raised for the Representational theory by allowing art works to simply be about some general subject: therefore, DuChamp's "Fountain" can be understood as making some comment about the overall nature of art (i.e., the urinal makes us reflect on the very nature of art, and art objects, such that we may now look upon ordinary objects as prospective art works, and thus see their previously unrecognized beauty).
- Problems: Many art works are not clearly "about anything", such as architecture, purely decorative art, abstract music, etc. (so the definition is, once again, "too narrow"). One might try to state that a particular piece of absolute music is "about sadness" (such as the slow movement of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" piano sonata), but this seems to be an incorrect judgment: a piece of music can "express" sadness, but it is not "about" sadness.

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FORMALISM THEORY OF ART

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- Focusing upon the form or structure of art objects, such that art objects are those objects which posses the appropriate type of formal or structural features.
The "designed primarily" criterion is supposed to eliminate those objects which are not artworks but possess a complex arrangement of its parts, such as mathematical equations or road signs. Also, the requirement for a "designed" object prevents accidental objects from being considered as artworks (such as if a painter accidentally spilled some paint on a canvas, such that the spill now exhibits the appropriate form).

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NEO-FORMALISM THEORY OF ART

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x is an artwork if and only if
(1) x had content
(2) x has form and
(3) the form and the content of x are related to each other in a satisfyingly appropriate manner.
Neo-formalism takes into account representational content.

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HISTORICAL NARRATIVE THEORY OF ART

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Having history can provide reasons to why the art was made; give it purpose and a deeper meaning. This can contribute positively to the judgment of art. However, if someone has history of the artist having bad personal traits, the person can have a bias opinion when judging a piece of art.

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ART HISTORY THEORY OF ART

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Things are what they are because of the time and place in which they are found, according to this theory. In other words, if the piece of art were taken completely out of context and put into another time and place, the artwork would not be the same. The history and the background change the meaning of the photograph, and also enable the photograph to be grasped and/or understood. The event that had just taken place effects the meaning of this picture.

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INSTITUTIONAL THEORY OF ART

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According to George Dickie,a work of art in the classificatory sense is:
(1) an [original] artifact
(2) a set of the aspects of which has had conferred upon it
the status of candidate for appreciation
by some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld)."

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MORALISM

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"An artwork is artistically excellent insofar as it is ethically good"
Problem: This ignores artistic value altogether

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SEPARATISM

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"Ethical and artistic values are utterly distinct and have no bearing upon another"
Problem: A rigid separation does not always work

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ETHICISM

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"A painting can be artistically improved or diminished by its ethical properties"