The title is a variation on a famous work by 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant and the painting, Twilight in The Wilderness, is by the 19th century American artist, Frederic Edwin Church and can be found in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
In the upcoming weeks and months, I will begin addressing questions concerning a topic near and dear to my heart: aesthetics. Aesthetics is usually defined along these lines:
A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art;
the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of beauty and artistic taste.
As aesthetic issues are rather numerous and broad in scope, my intent here will be to focus in on a few key areas as I work to elucidate my own ideas and theories concerning the “nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.” In essence, following the Latin maxim
De gustibus non est disputandum — “In matters of taste, there can be no disputes.”
I will argue appreciation of beauty, art or questions of artistic taste is primarily a subjective matter, unique to each and every individual walking the planet. I’ve no desire to define or set criteria by which one may assess the value of an other’s aesthetic sense. In fact, I most adamantly reject the seemingly innate human desire to build hierarchies by which one may position oneself as the arbiter of taste. In the course of developing my thoughts I will be drawing upon knowledge gleaned from cognitive science, information theory and evolutionary theory as well as touching upon the work of some well-known philosophers (e.g. Susanne Langer, Arthur Danto, etc.) who wrote extensively about aesthetics and/or art. I welcome any and all to share their thoughts and criticisms as I proceed.
Comments
2 responses to “A Prolegomenon to Any Future Aesthetics”
Hello!
First of all – Ooooooooh! Art! Aesthetics! Cognitive science! Information and evolutionary theories! So, how does this differ from your previous writings? A little T.I.C. there; I look forward to reading your addressing these topics a bit more formally, though I hope you’ll include the occasional Thoughts on Two Wheels.
I just recently visited the Cleveland Museum of Art with my 22 and 13 year old sons and viewed FC’s Twilight in the Wilderness. They’ve removed it from it’s former location in the American art gallery to the gallery in the main entrance across from the museum store. Observing my sons viewing and appreciation of the painting and now reading of your intent to discuss aesthetics in your blog gives me pause for consideration. I’m pondering the sense of aesthetics possessed by the artist, how the artist imbues his/her work with their particular set of aesthetics and how the viewer, across space time and cultural influences sees the painting and is touched by the artist’s aesthetics. Of course, as stated above, “appreciation of beauty, art or questions of artistic taste is primarily a subjective matter, unique to each and every individual walking the planet.” So, I suppose, there are individuals out there who, upon viewing this painting, may shrug their shoulders indifferently and move on unaffected. But somehow, my two sons, who are more in tune to virtual reality than anything happening in the mundane world around them it seems, upon viewing FC’s painting, conjoined their personal sense of beauty with that of the artist and emitted recognizable appreciative utterances!
I once encountered a painting hanging in the student lounge of Firelands College, a satellite campus of BGSU located in Huron, Oh. The painting was an abstract comprised of a commixture of dull, dingy swaths of orange, brown, green and black. I found the painting repulsive yet my gaze was inexplicably drawn to it each time I entered it’s vicinity. I remember thinking (in my mid twenties) that this could not be art, as it was ugly, repulsive and depressing. However, eventually, I realized that, as art, it worked. It had elicited an emotional response from me from my first viewing. The artist’s sense of aesthetics, which at first I could not relate to, over time infiltrated my own and effected a change there-in! What an epiphany!
ajb
Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply, Mr. Bores. Yes, there are individuals for whom “Twilight in the Wilderness” would engender feelings of indifference and/or (possibly) scorn as is their prerogative. Not unlike your initial response to and subsequent appreciation for the painting at BGSU, the matter of aesthetics and artistic taste is, as I contend, primarily a subjective matter unique to each and every one of us. I seek to emphasize or argue, as expressed in the Latin maxim I quoted, that there are no rights and wrongs in the matter of aesthetics. Your acceptance and appreciation of whatever work of art you encounter is valid. That’s all.