PHILOSPHY AND AESTHETIC ISSUES IN PAINTING

Course Syllabus, FIA 722

Instructor: Dr. Onoyom Ukpong

Session, Time, Venue: Mondays, 9a.m. – 12noon, Post-Graduate Seminar Room

Office Hours: Mondays, 1.00 - 2.30 p.m.

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Introduction

Philosophical issues in art brewed largely in art theories of the previous and the present

centuries. Painting is one of many subject areas in which the aesthetic abides, and which

aesthetics has influenced as a result of these issues. The propounding and counter-propounding

of art theories by philosophical powers force our perception of painting into an interesting

experience in recent years. Perhaps more interesting today than it was in the days the beautiful

was known to have resided strictly in Greek art. The very thought of problem resolution as the

essence of reasoning about painting in our contemporary art-history circles makes painting a

subject of public entertainment.

Since the advent of Formalism, aesthetic issues in painting have rested principally on what

aestheticians believe should or should not constitute beauty of a painting. On what a painting

should or should not look like. And on how it must be appreciated in the trajectory of its

interpretation. One of these beliefs, reproduced into the Essentialist view, calls for the

presence of specific properties in painting as a criterion of its validation. It calls for the

completeness of these properties in a painting, without which it is worth nothing more than

debris, or can be everything but a visual art. Essentialists argue that the absence of essential

properties from painting obscures what they take to be the answer to the question of art

validation: the presence of “essential” properties in painting versus their absence from it.

Soon after came the Anti-Essentialist aestheticians whose perspective of reasoning about the

beautiful in a painting holds in its insusceptibility to the Essentialist conditions of art validation.

Anti-Essentialists contend: assigning ‘essential’ properties to painting impedes the creative

process; thus, “stifles creativity” (Morris Weitz). In Weitz’s perspective of reasoning about the

beautiful in, for example, painting, a painting is all via which a painter expresses a skill or an

idea, irrespective of the norm. For Weitz and others in his company a painting is a painting

insofar as it is finished and signed. The painter’s signature on it thus becomes a validating art-

philosophical force.

But there are Multicultural Aestheticians, as well, whose point of entry into the discourse

founds on the concept of pushing theoretical boundaries from the partisan perspective of art

assessment to bi-gendered space, to reception of more liberal models of art-philosophical

interpretation from developing civilizations. From this Multicultural point of view locates a

company of mostly non-Western philosophical contenders such as Stephen David Ross, Monroe

Beardsley, R. Hepburn, V. Y. Mudimbe, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Franz Fanons whose positions on

the subject have changed the close-ended art-philosophical models of rationalizing the

beautiful in a painting. A change by which the aesthetic is measured neither solely in the

presence of irreducible properties of a painting nor in demonstrated skills in it, but in a

combination of both, based chiefly on the reception of cognitive value of the painting in the

place of its creation.

This seminar is organized in structured series of assigned readings on both Western and non-

Western art theories. It provides participants the forum for engagement in critical reasoning

about art theory and its influence on painting through the centuries. The convener shall guide

participants in a process of thinking through to absorbing assigned readings preparatory to

studying paintings as a visual art. The rationale is to utilize these theories as a means to

discovering the aesthetic abiding in paintings.

Seminar Assignments Participants are to read all of the scheduled twice-weekly readings but must select one topic

from the list of chapter readings following this paragraph. The topic must be agreed on by the

parties and recorded for future reference. A one-page analytic paper on the assigned topic is

due for circulation and presentation on the scheduled seminar day and time. At each end of the

twice-weekly session, names and topics of subsequent presenters will be announced and

instructions given, some of which will from time to time be sent to participants via electronic

mail, as the need arises. Be prepared to revise your paper into a ten-page document due for

final presentation and submission by the agreed-on day, the final day of the seminar, which will

be open to anyone you may choose to invite. Late submission of the paper will not be accepted

without prior agreement and appropriate documentation.

Required Readings Ross, Stephen D [ed.]. Art and Its Significance. 3rd ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. Additional course website resource Excerpts from: • Lamarque, P., and Stein Olse. Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. • Solomon, F. Critique of Modern Art. New Hampshire: Nathaniel Hawthorn College Press, 1970.

Recommended Readings

Critical Issues in Aesthetics (Feminist and Multicultural Theories) Trinh Minh-ha. “Woman, Native, Other” Mar 29, 31 Morris Weitz. “The Role of Theory in Aesthetics” Apr 05, 07 Monroe Beardsley. “An Aesthetic Definition of Art” Apr 12, 14 Stephen Davies. “Weitz’s Anti-Essentialism” Apr 19, 21 R. Hepburn. “Contemporary Aesthetics ….” Apr 26, 28 V. Y. Mudimbe. “The Invention of Africa” May 03

Grading Attendance and seminar participation [30 pts., each]: 60 points Scheduled paper presentation/circulation: 20 points Final paper presentation/submission: 20 points

Conduct Cellular phone use, text messaging Ipods and use of other electronic devices interfere with seminar proceedings which assault tranquility, and thus are prohibited during sessions. These devices must be turned off and stored properly. Late arrivals and early departures will not be condoned, as these activities disrupt smooth deliberation and may be recorded as absences. Visits to the bathroom and concession stand must be conducted quietly. These fundamentals should be strictly observed to ensure a conference environment conducive for maximization of learning. I should point out that plagiarism is prohibited. Please refer to the student handbook, page 19, for stipulations on this and the penalty for violating this code of conduct.

Civility Statement Participants are expected to be polite when raising questions about peer presentations and

when providing answers to them during sessions. Confrontational approach to all aspects of

seminar-related matters: comments and inquiries including accepting and rejecting peer

grounds of dispute are unacceptable. This means that conversations and interactions between

participants should show interpersonal respect. Failure on the part of participants to maintain

an atmosphere reflecting the foregoing fundamentals shall constitute sufficient ground upon

which the participants in violation may be rusticated from participating in the active and

subsequent sessions, consistent with procedures set forth in the Student Conduct Code to

address such and similar circumstances.