Introduction to Philosophy of Art
Anita Silvers, San Francisco State University
Background and Prerequisites
The work in this course does not presume any specific prerequisites. However, it does presume that you have some background either in art, in art stud ies, literary studies, cinema theory, etc.; or in philosophy; or in cultural or multi-cultural or feminist studies, or at least have a strong interest in one or more of the arts.
Purpose and Objective
The focus of this course is on you - and art: your experience of art, your reflections about art, and, for some of you, your creation of works of art. Some people think of art as intensely personal. Other people think of art as powerfully transpersonal. We will explore both these dimensions of art - and others as well.
Our conversations will be held with a view toward enriching, extending and deepening your own thoughts about such central aesthetic questions as What is art..is everything art, or is art rarely and difficultly achieved? What is good art? Is good art beautiful? Is good art meaningful? disturbing? true? How do I know whether I'm experiencing art aesthetically? Is art for expressing feelings, making statements, transforming the status quo, giving pleasure ...or is art for art's sake alone? What connects artists to [or frees them from] their audiences, the social order, the artworld, other artists' achievements, t 636l117g he future of art, their own past histories, their own art? What is artistic imagination, and do you have it? Can art do harm? Does art have limits?
The objectives of the course include familiarizing you with aesthetic theories that have exerted influence on the artworld and guiding you in applying and assessing them. The course has twin goals: your developing skills in artwriting and your formulating your own aesthetic theory, which you can articulate and apply reflectively. As you will learn from the assigned writings, there are many formats for artwriting (writing about individual works of art and artworld issues) and aesthetic theorizing (writing about general principles and perspectives from which to better understand art).
Assignments and Grading
Artwriting: the syllabus below specifies artwriting assignments. Each should be between one and four typewritten pages. Your artwriting should be explicit about the conceptions of art and of good art which you adopt. Your artwriting should reflect upon, and present your treatment of, the specified puzzle case. Your artwriting should be informed by the reading you do, so that what you write is presented as the work of a knowledgeable, educated person. Your artwriting should not beg the question or substitute doctrine for reasoned argument. Your artwriting should be well-written. (I reserve the right to return papers to you ungraded if the spelling, punctuation and other mechanical aspects are so flagrantly incorrect they disrupt my reading.) Your artwrit ing may serve as the basis of discussion in discussion groups, and we will try to give you the oppor tunities to revise it after discussion, but before handing it in. See below for specific dates and as signments. [30% of total grade]
Midterm Examination (in-class): This is an exercise in presenting, applying, comparing and criticizing the aesthetic theories you've learned about so far. [30% of the total grade]
Final Essay: This is an exercise in formulating and articulating your own aesthetic theory, comparing it to others you've learned about and explaining why it is preferable to them, and applying it to puzzle cases to illustrate it. The essay should be between 5 and 10 typed pages. [40% of total grade]
Study Questions
The following questions can be used to guide your reading of each art theo rist. As you read, try to answer each question. (Some theorists will not provide answers to each question.) By comparing different theorists' answers to the same question, you can comprehend the alternative conceptions of art available through aesthetic theory.
As you read each theorist, try to write out the answer to each question in your artwriting notebook. If you do not see how the theorist answers some of the questions, please pursue this in class by asking about it. This will help you in applying their theories to the Puzzle Cases because it will give you practice in how to make general points about the nature of art. Your artwriting should be designed to show what you think about the general principles or conceptions which each Puzzle Case brings into focus.
1.According to this theory, why do human beings make art and why are they audiences for art?
2.According to this theory, what is the difference between art and other things?
3.According to this theory, what is the difference between aesthetic experience and other kinds of experience?
4.According to this theory, what does the artist contribute to make a thing art?
5.According to this theory, (how) is art related to the moral, social, political, economic and cultural context in which it is created?
Reading
Art and its Significance: An
Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, 3rd edition, ed. Stephen Ross
Puzzles About Art, Battin, Fisher, Moore and Silvers
Addis "The Three Women of Gion"
Appiah "Race"
Derrida "Deconstruction In America"
Eagleton "From the Polis to Post-modernism" from The Ideology of
the Aesthetic
Fister "Women Artists in Traditional Japan"
Foucault "What Is An Author?"
Frueh "Towards A Feminist Theory of Art Criticism"
Garrard "Artemisia and Susanna"
Gates "Writing, 'Race', and the Difference It Makes"
Gates "Canon-Formation, Literary History, and the Afro-American Tradition:
From the Seen to the Told"
Gates "The Master's Pieces: On Canon-Formation & the African-American
Tradition"
Gilbert and Gubar "The Mirror and the Vamp: Reflections on Feminist
Criticism"
Krupat "Native American Literature and The Canon"
Mainardi "Quilts: The Great American Art"
Nochlin "Women, Art and Power"
Pollock "Vision, Voice and Power: feminist art histories and Marxism"
Silvers "Has Her(oine's) Time Now Come?"
Silvers "Who Grows In Phillis Wheatley's Garden?"
Showalter "A Criticism of Our Own: Autonomy and Assimilation In
Afro-American and Feminist Literary Theory"
Berger Ways of Seeing
Nicholson & Fraser "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter
Between Feminism and Postmodernism" in Feminism/Postmodernism,
edited by Linda Nicholson
Nochlin "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" in Art and
Sexual Politics, edited by Hess and Baker
Various newspaper articles, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and reviews about the Mapplethorpe Exhibit/NEA funding for performance art/ etc. and other current controversies. A packet will be handed out the first day of class, and this will be supplemented as the semester unfolds. A copy of a Silvers' encyclopaedia article called "The Artworld" will also be handed out in class.
August 29
Introduction to the three elements of the artworld: the art work, the artist, the audience. Focus on continuing issues about the role of art in society. Art theory in antiquity, and its continuing influence. Public Art and Political Art.
September 12 Art Theory in Antiquity
What is the value of art to individuals and to the community?
Excerpts from Plato, Republic, pp. 7-46; Ion, pp. 45-55; Battin et. al: Chapter 1, "Art and Artworks"; Silvers, "The Artworld"
September 19 Art Theory in Antiquity continued
Lecture/Discussion on art and society, examining how Plato and Aristotle share a fundamental conception of art but come to different conclusions about its value to society.
Excerpts from Aristotle, Poetics, pp. 68-78; Battin et. al.: Chapter 3, "Meaning and Interpretation;" Berger, John Ways of Seeing (Skim through this, concentrating on the treatment of female figures in painting.) We will see part of Berger's television show on this subject in class.
Artwriting (due September 26): Write an essay on whether art which is offensive, immoral, or discriminatory should be supported with public funds. You may refer to the Mapplethorpe/NEA case which is described and discussed in the handouts I gave you and/or to the Student Union Malcolm X mural. You must refer to the art theories of Plato, Aristotle, and your self. In your writing, clearly identify the conception of art and its purpose(s) which informs your artwriting. After you finish, make some notes summarizing your arguments to help you in next week's discussion.
September 26 Art Theory
Lecture/discussion on subjectivist art theories.
Hume, "Of The Standard of Taste", pp. 81-97; Battin et. al: Chapter 2, Beauty, Ugliness, & Aesthetic Experience;" Nochlin, "Women, Art and Power;" "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"
Additional Study Question: What does Hume mean by "the test of time"? What kinds of art pass the test of time?
Discussion: Drafts of artwriting(I) assignment on public funding of offensive, immoral or discriminatory art.
October 3 Enlightenment Art Theory, 18th & 20th Centuries
Excerpt from Kant, Critique on Judgment, pp. 98-144; excerpt from Marcuse, The Aesthetic Dimension, pp. 550-560.
Be prepared to discuss the following Study Questions: 1. Does Kant give a definition of aesthetic experience which differentiates it from other kinds of experience? 2. On Kant's view, how would you know whether you were experiencing something aesthetically? How would you know whether you were experiencing something through the free play of the imagi nation and the understanding? 3. On Kant's view, is there any role for the artwriter to play? Is there any role for the artist to play? 4. How does Marcuse's theory resemble Kant's? How does it differ from Kant's?
Discussion: Review study questions on Kant. Application of Kant's theory to poetry (poems will be handed out).
Hand in revised version of your first artwriting(I) assignment (see assignment for September 26 to remind yourself of this assignment.)
October 10 Modernist Views of Art and Its Meaning
Excerpt from Bell, Art, pp. 193 - 204; excerpt from Merleau-Ponty, Eye and Mind, pp. 288 - 307.
Additional Study Questions: 1. What does Bell mean by "significant form"? How would you know whether a work had "significant form"? How would you know whether a critic knew whether a work had "significant form"? 2. Does Merleau-Ponty look for the same things in a painting as Bell?
We will also see part of Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will.
Artwriting (due October 17): Read Battin et. al., Chapter 5, "Art and Other Values", pp. 148-160. Consider Puzzle Case 5-20, Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Write an essay discussing whether or not it is good art. Use at least some of the theories we have studied in your essay. Be sure to consider the arguments for both sides of the question.
October 17 Art History and Art Tradition in the Art World
Excerpt from Benjamin, The Work of Art In The Age Of Its Mechanical Reproducibility, pp. 527 - 539; Danto, "The Artworld", pp. 469 - 487.
Additional Study Questions: 1. Compare Benjamin's and Danto's views about how predecessor art works influence or otherwise affect their successors. 2. What is Danto's notion of the artworld and does Benjamin have a comparable notion? What makes art good in the artworld?
Discussion: Drafts of artwriting assignment on Triumph of the Will. We will compare the case of this film with the case of the Malcolm X mural.
October 24 Postmodern Critiques of Antiquity, the Enlightenment and Modernism
Excerpt from Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, pp. 163 - 170; excerpts from Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art, pp. 257 - 287; excerpt from Lyotard, What Is Postmodernism? pp. 593 - 596; Eagleton, "From the Polis to Postmodernism."
Hand in revised version of your second artwriting assignment.
October 31
Midterm: This is an in-class exam. See the part of the syllabus which explains "assigned work and grading" for more details.
November 7 Postmodernism and Meaning
Excerpt from Foucault, The Order of Things, pp. 440-454; Derrida, Restitutions and Letter to Peter Eisenman, pp. 421-437; Foucault, "What Is An Author?"
Optional: Derrida, "Deconstruction In America;" Battin et. al.: Chapter 4, "Creativity and Fidelity: Performance Replication, and Reading", pp. 105-120.
November 14 Theorizing Women's Art: Subjectivist Theories
Freud, "The Relation of the Poet To Daydreaming," pp. 500 - 506; excerpt from Irigaray, "Any Theory of the 'Subject' Has Always Been Appropriated by the 'Masculine'", pp. 578 - 590; Gilbert and Gubar, "The Mirror and the Vamp: Reflections on Feminist Criticism."
Artwriting (dueNovember 21): Write an essay on Case 3-22, A Ladylike Hand. In your essay, address the question, "Is there a discernible difference between women's art and men's art?"
November 21 What Is Women's Art?
We will see the film Quilts In Women's Lives.
Trinh Minh-ha, "Woman, Native, Other", pp. 600 - 606; Showalter, "A Criticism of Our Own: Autonomy and Assimilation in Afro-American and Feminist Literary Theory;" Mainardi, "Quilts: The Great American Art;" Frueh: "Towards A Feminist Theory of Art Criticism."
Discussion: What is feminism?
November 28 Postmodernism, Tradition and Revisionism
We will see slides on "Images and Ideas In Women's Art".
Nicholson, Linda & Nancy Fraser, "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism & Postmodernism;" Silvers, "Has Hero(in)e's Time Now Come?" Pollock, "Vision, Voice & Power: feminist art histories & Marxism."
Optional: Garrard, "Artemisia & Susanna;" Fister, "Women Artists in Traditional Japan;" Addiss, "The Three Women of Gion."
December 6 The New Canons and the Test of Time
Gates, "Authority, (White) Power, and the (Black) Critic;or it's all Greek to me;" or Gates, "The Master's Pieces: On Canon-Formation and the African-American Tradition;" Krupat, "Native American Literature and The Canon;" Appiah, "Race;" Silvers, "Who Grows In Phillis Wheatley's Garden?" Mudime, "The Invention of Africa", pp. 600 - 606.
December 15
Your final paper is due by 5:00 p.m. today. The topic is "Can the Artworld Be Multi cultural?" Be sure to present your theory of art explicitly in this essay. See syllabus section on "as signed work and grading" for further instructions. I cannot accept late papers.
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