Art and Form

8/6/2019 Art and Form

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CLIVE B LL (1 881 1964)ON AR AN MO IONFor Bell, aesthetics must begin with aperson's experience of a distinctive kind ofemotion.The objects which produce this kind ofemotion are called 'artworks.'Bell does not mean that all artworks producethe same particu/aremotion, but that theyproduce the same kind of emotion.

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B ONA H Ie MO IONAll works of visual art produce a certainkind of emotion which Bell calls'aestheticemotion.'The question is: what is the distinctivequalitywhich is common to all artworkswhich provoke aesthetic emotion?For Bell, there must be such a commonquality "or when we speak of 'works of art'we gibber." (This talk of a "common quality"which good artworks share recalls Plato.)

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IGNIFICANT FORM IBell: "There must be some one qualitywithout which a work of art cannot exist,"and an object cannot be an artwork unlessit has th s quality.This quality Bell calls 'significant form,' and,according to Bell, "significant form is theone quality common to allworks of visualart."significant form = df. "relations andcombinations of lines and colors."

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CRITICISM AND THE SUBjECTIVE BASISOF AESTHETICS

Bell: "I have no right to consider anything a workof art to which I cannot react emotionally."A critic can help me to react emotionally tosomething to which I have not so reactedbefore. However, a critic cannot just tell me thatsomething is a work of art, rather, he or shemust make me feel that it is a work of art. (Notethe similarity here of Bell's view to that ofCoil ingwood and Malevich regard i ng theimportance of feeling in art.)This a critic can only do "by making me see; hemust get at my emotions through my eyes."

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UBJ C IVI Y AN G N RALVALIDI Y

Bell: "All systems of aesthetics must be basedon personal experience - that is to say, theymust be subjective."However, Bell says that "it would be rash toassert that no theory of aesthetics can havegeneral validity."Thus, even though people can and will disagreeon which works are moving, Bell thinks theyshould agree that what moving artworks have incommon is significant form. (Note how this andthe previous remark about "general validity" callHume to mind.)

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SIGNIFICANT FORM IISignificant form consists of combinations oflines and colors which produce aestheticemotion.Bell: There is no defensible distinctionbetween color and form: "you cannotconceive a colorless line or space; neithercan you conceive a formless relation ofcolors." And "you cannot imagine aboundary line without any content, or acontent without a boundary line."

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D C IP IV PAIN INCA painting is descriptive, for Bell, when itsforms "are used not as objects of emotion,but as means of suggesting emotion (suchas fear) or conveying information."Descriptive paintings do not move usaesthetically, and so are notworks of art.Only those objects which have significantform move us aesthetically, and hence onlythese qualify as works of art.

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EDVARD MUNCH


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FORM, COLOR, SPAC ,AND ARAPPRECIATION

For Bell, "to appreciate a work of art we needonly have a sense of form and color and aknowledge of three-dimensional space."However, three-dimensional space is notrelevant to the appreciation of all artworks,only those that attempt to represent thatspace.

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The Turning Road, L'estaque,Andre Derain (1880-1954), 190

The representation of three-dimensl space ISpainting by Derain, but not to the painting by Rothko.13


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PROB M OR B IAccording to Bell, we know that an objecthas significant form when it results inaesthetic emotion, but when we ask whataesthetic emotion is, the answer is that itis what is produced by significant form.Thus significant form seems to be definedin terms of its relation to aestheticemotion at the same time that aestheticemotion is defined in terms of its relationto significant form.This is circular.

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PROBl M FOR B l IIIt is artworks which are said to havesignificant form, but an object qualifies as anartwork in virtue of having significant form.Thus it seems that the notions of 'artwork,''significant form,' and 'aesthetic emotion' aredefined in terms of one another.

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PRO M OR L IIIBell only talks about aesthetic experience in termsof a distinctive kind of emotion which artworksproduce. But can we rule out that some artworksproduce an intellectual response that deserves tobe called 'aesthetic?For Bell, the subject matterof a visual artwork isirrelevant, only form is relevant. But surely thesubject matter of some works is relevant to ouraesthetiC appreciation of it.

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PROBLEM FOR BELL IVFinally, we can ask: "Is the point of all art to beaesthetic?" - however 'aesthetic' is to bedefined, and whether or not it might includeintellectual in addition to emotional experience.Is it not legitimate to ask if art can do thingsother than provide aesthetic emotion, andthings which are culturally significant? (RecallDuchamp's readymades, and Minimal andConceptual art.)That is, Bell's theory seems to be too simple toaccount for the wide variety of visualartworks and what we experience inexperiencing them.

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GR N RGIAN MOD RNI M IClement Greenberg (1909-1994): "Theessence of Modernism lies in the use of thecharacteristic methods of a discipline tocriticize the discipline itself . . . to entrench itmore firmly in its area o f competence."Modernism for Greenberg begins with Kant,since Kant used philosophy to criticizephilosophy.

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GR NB RGIAN MOD RNI M IIThe procedure of Modernism is self-criticism, or criticism from the inside, thatis, "through the procedures themselves ofthat which is being criticized."The arts are valuable when they are capableof demonstrating: 1) that "the kind ofexperience they provided was valuable in itsown right, and 2) that experience "could notbe obtained from any other kind of activity."

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GR NB RGIAN MOD R ISM IIIFor Modernism: 1) art in general has to use andexhibit what is "unique and irreducible" to artin general; and 2) each particular art form hasto use and exhibit what is "unique andirreducible" to that art form."Each art had to determine, through operationspeculiar to itself, the effects peculiar andexclusive to itself."An art form becomes more insular because ofthis, but by becoming more narrow it becomesmore pure.

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GR NB RGIAN MO RNI M IVAn art form discovers its "area ofcompetence" by focusing on what it shareswith no otherart form.By focusing on what is "unique to the natureof its medium," an art form is renderedpure.Each art form should eliminate whatever itshares with any other art form, or eliminateany effects that might be produced fromexperiencing a different kind of art form.

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MOD RNI PAIN ING IRea listic 0 r i l l u s on s art i s not Mod ern s ,since it directs attention away from ratherthan to the unique characteristics of painting.The unique characteristics of painting are: 1)its flat surface; 2) the shape of its support; 3)the properties of pigment.

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MOD RNI T PAINTING IIManet is the first Modernist paintingbecause his work draws attention to theirsurfaces. (Point 1 about flatness).The Impressionists continued the Modernisttrend by drawing attention to paint as paint.(Point 3 about pigment).Cezanne replaced more fluid forms ofrepresentation with geometrical formswhich were fit "more explicitly to therectangular shape of the canvas." (Point 3about the shape of the support).

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MOD RNI PAIN INC IIIAlthough pigment as pigment (color), andthe shape of the support (typicallyrectangular) are important aspects ofModernist painting, it is flatness which ismost important.The rectangular shape of the paintingsupport - stretcher bars - is found in thecurtain frame of the theater.Color is found in theater, sculpture, film,photography, etc.

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MO RNI PAIN NG IVModernist painting is directed towardsflatness since flatness is "the only conditionwhich painting shared with no other art."Although the surfaces of representationalpaintings are flat, they draw attention awayfrom their flatness through illusion.In representational painting one is aware ofi Iu s on fi rs t, fl atn e ssseco n d .In Modernist painting one is aware offlatness first, and there is no illusion.

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MOD RNI T PAINTING VEven the barest or most primitive kind ofillusion will suggest a 3-d space beyond thesurface of the canvas. And for Greenbergthis "alienates" painting from its uniquefeature in the arts of two-dimensionality.Three-dimensionality is "the province ofsculpture," and to keep its purity, paintingmust disassociate itself from sculpture.And in this disassociation it becomesabstract.

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MO RNIS PAIN INC VIThe focus of Modernist painting is on purelyoptical experience which lacks tactileassociations.One achieves that focus through concentratingon "flatness and the delimitation of flatness."However, flatness is never a complete flatnesssince even a single line drawn on a surface"destroys its virtual flatness." For instance,even Mondrian's work suggests a "strictlyoptical (not tactual) third dimension."

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MO RNI AIN INC VIIModernist painting must concentrate onvisual experience as visual, and make noreference to other kinds of experience.Particularly, it should avoid reference totactual space or a space into which orthrough which one could imagine walking.By concentrating on the surface of thepainting as two-dimensional, paintingbecomes optical, and "entirely loses itsliterary character."

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Mysteries: Solar, Kenneth Noland, 1999

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MODERNISM, SCI NC ,ANSELF CRITICISM

After talking of Kant, Greenberg now says that"self-criticism finds its perfect expression inscience rather than philosophy."Here'self-criticism' means that the problems ofa discipline are addressed and solved in termsof the nature of that discipline.For Modernist painting, this means that theaesthetic problems of painting must beaddressed in terms of the nature of painting -colors spread on a flattwo-dimensional surfacein such a way that no subject matter isrepresented but only non-objective shapes areuti I zed.

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Untitled, Agnes Martin, 199741


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MOD RNI M AN AVALU

Greenberg says that aesthetic value does notfollow necessarily from attending merely toflatness. That is, one must look at the resultsof a method, and not merely the methoditself- which mayor may not lead to goodresults.

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THE NATURE OF MODERNISM'S SELF-CRITICISM

Modernism's self-criticism is carried on in "aspontaneous and sub/imina/way." Thisrecommends an avoidance of technique thatis similar to Collingwood's rejection of craft,and hence has something in common withexpression ist views of art.Modernism as a theory about art developedout of the practices of arti sts, it did not fi rstexist as theory from which certain artworksfollowed."Th e i m med iate aim s of Modern i star t s t sremain individual before anything else."

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THE NATURE OF MODERNISM'S SELF-CRITICISM

Modernism's self-criticism is carried on in "aspontaneous and sub/imina/way." Thisrecommends an avoidance of technique thatis similar to Collingwood's rejection of craft,and hence has something in common withexpressionist views of art.Modernism as a theory about art developedout of the practices of artists, it did not firstexist as theory from which certain artworksfollowed."The immediate aims of Modernist artistsremain individual before anything else."

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MOD RNI M AN ART HI TORYModernist art does not break with the art ofthe past, but develops out of t.Modernist art represents part of thedevelopment of art history, and so iscontinuous with it.Greenberg: "Wherever Modernism ends up itwill never stop being intelligible in terms ofthe continuity of art." And it does notchange the value of art that came before it.

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Art and Form