Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of DoubtWhat is art; why should we value it; and what allows us to say that one work is better than another?Traditional answers have emphasized aesthetic form. But this has been challenged by institutional definitions of art and postmodern critique. The idea of distinctively artistic value based on aesthetic criteria is at best doubted, and at worst, rejected. This book, however, champions these notions in a new way. It does so through a rethink of the mimetic definition of art on the basis of factors which traditional answers neglect, namely the conceptual link between art's aesthetic value and'non-exhibited' epistemological and historical relations.These factors converge on an expanded notion of the artistic image (a notion which can even encompass music, abstract art, and some conceptual idioms). The image's style serves to interpret its subject-matter. If this style is original (in comparative historical terms) it can manifest that special kind of aesthetic unity which we call art. Appreciation of this involves a heightened interaction of capacities (such as imagination and understanding) which are basic to knowledge and personalidentity. By negotiating these factors, it is possible to define art and its canonic dimensions objectively, and to show that aforementioned sceptical alternatives are incomplete and self-contradictory. |
Contents
Normative Aesthetics and Artistic Value | 1 |
Part I Culture and Artistic Value | 13 |
Part II The Aesthetic and the Artistic | 65 |
The Status and Future of Art | 235 |
Acknowledgements | 247 |
| 249 | |
| 255 | |
Other editions - View all
Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt Paul Crowther Limited preview - 2007 |
Defining Art, Creating the Canon:Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt: Artistic ... Paul Crowther No preview available - 2007 |
Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt Paul Crowther No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract abstract art achieved actual aesthetic aesthetic judgement analysis anti-foundationalism approach Archilochus argued artefact Arthur Danto articulation artistic artwork auditory basic basis broader canonic capacity Chapter character characterization cognitive complex concept context contextual space contrast course creative criteria Critique of Judgement cultural Danto definition of art described dimension distinctive elements embodiment emergence emotion emphasized example exemplifies existential experience experiential fact factors formal formalist function fundamental Gadamer gestural aspects historical idioms imagination individual interpretation intrinsic involves Jerrold Levinson Kant kind Maurice Merleau-Ponty medium metaphor metaphysical mode musical meaning narrative non-western normative notion object ontological originality painting particular perception perceptual position person perspectival image philosophical position possible present relation relativism Richard Wollheim role sense sensible space-time continuum spatial specific structure style stylistic subject matter temporally realized theory things twofoldness unconscious unity University Press virtual expression visual vocal western whilst work’s