Aesthetics

Function: noun

1. a particular taste for or

approach to what is
pleasing to the senses--
especially sight.
Aesthetics in this definition is something that
appeals to the senses. Someone’s aesthetic has
to do with his or her perceptual or artistic
judgment.

It comes from the root word:

Aesthesia: the ability to feel or
perceive; being awake and
able to feel senses.

The opposite is:

Anesthesia: the inability to feel
or perceive; to be asleep or
non-feeling.
We make informal
aesthetic choices every
day.
From what we wear . . .
to the things we
buy: books,
music, and
objects for our
homes.
 Public figures make aesthetic
choices to convey something
about who they are.

Andy Warhol wore various

silver wigs throughout the
’60s, ’70s, and ’80s to change
his personal appearance--to
create a signature look.

Who does this in today’s

popular culture?
Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait
(Fright Wig), 1986, Polaroid™
Polacolor ER, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.
(10.8 x 8.6 cm.). ©AWF
The aesthetic choices we make influence many
parts of our lives.

We all have a personal aesthetic

(preferences and tastes based on what we see).
How would you
describe the aesthetic
quality of your
classroom at school?
How would you
describe the aesthetic
quality of your
bedroom?
The philosophy of aesthetics
asks and tries to answer the
“Big” Questions:
• What is art?
• What makes a piece of art beautiful?
• How important are personal tastes when judging
the quality of art?
• What are the standards for judging art?
• Why is originality so important in art? How do we
define what is original or what is creative?
 The Nature of Beauty

Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1971, Published Edition, 137/250 screen

print on paper, 35 1/2 x 48 in. ©AWF
Do artworks have to be beautiful or pretty?
The major problem in aesthetics concerns the nature
of the beautiful. Generally speaking there are two
basic approaches to the problem of beauty:

•The objective approach asserts that beauty inheres

in the object and that judgments concerning it may
have objective validity.

•The subjective approach tends to identify the

beautiful with that which pleases the observer.
• Outstanding defenders of the objective position
were Plato, Aristotle, and G. E. Lessing, and of the
subjective position, Edmund Burke and David
Hume.

• In his Critique of Judgment, Kant mediated

between the two tendencies by showing that
aesthetic judgment has universal validity despite
its subjective nature.
What counts as "art?“

Art, the product of creative human activity in

which materials are shaped or selected to
convey an idea, emotion, or visually
interesting form.
• The word art can refer to the visual arts, including
painting, sculpture, architecture, photography,
decorative arts, crafts, and other visual works that
combine materials or forms.

• We also use the word art in a more general sense

to encompass other forms of creative activity,
such as dance, drama, and music, or even to
describe skill in almost any activity, such as “the
art of bread making” or “the art of travel.”
• Artists, philosophers, anthropologists,
psychologists and programmers all use the notion
of art in their respective fields, and give it
operational definitions that are not very similar to
each other.

• The main recent sense of the word “art” is roughly

as an abbreviation for creative art or “fine art.”

• It means that skill is being used to express the

artist’s creativity, or to engage the audience’s
aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience
towards consideration of the “finer” things.
• Leo Tolstoy, claims that what makes something art
or not is how it is experienced by its audience, not
by the intention of its creator.

• Monroe Beardsley argue that whether or not a

piece counts as art depends on what function it
plays in a particular context; the same Greek vase
may play a non-artistic function in one context
(carrying wine), and an artistic function in another
context (helping us to appreciate the beauty of the
human figure).
Aestheti
c 1. Representation (imitation, realism,
mimesis)
Theories 2. Expressionism (emotionalism)

: 3. Formalism
4. Communication of moral and religious
ideas
5. Symbolic (non-verbal) communication
6. Instrumentalism
7. Institutionalism
 The essence of art is to
Representation picture or portray reality.
(imitation, Good art mirrors the
world, imitating nature or
realism, mimesis):
some ideal form.

Martin Johnson Heade,

Thunderstorm at the
Shore, c. 1870-1871, oil
on paper mounted on
canvas attached to
panel 15 3/4 x 23 3/4
in. Carnegie Museum
of Art, Howard N.
Eavenson Memorial
Fund
Expressionism
(emotionalism):
The essence of art is expression of
the inner emotions, feelings, moods,
and mental states of the artist. Good
art effectively and sincerely brings
these inner states to an external
objectification.

Willem de Kooning,

Woman VI, 1953

Oil on canvas
 The essence of art is “significant
Formalism:form” - lines, shapes, colors, and
other formal properties of the
work; representation,
expression, and other subject
matter are irrelevant. Good art
uses formal elements to trigger
an “aesthetic emotion” in
sensitive observers.

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1974,

Stainless steel and Plexiglas
8 x 194 1/2 x 14 in. Carnegie
Museum of Art, Purchase:
gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Denby, by exchange
Communication of moral
and religious ideas:
The essence of art is the
communication of
important moral and
religious values from the
artist to the observer.
Good art is a form of
sincere communication
by the artist that
“infects” the observers
with those important
moral ideas.

Simon Bening, St. Gertrude de Nivelles, from

the Hours of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg
(1490-1545), Archbishop and Elector of Mainz
c. 1522-1523, opaque water-based paint
mounted on board 7 x 5 in. Carnegie Museum
of Art, Bequest of Howard A. Noble
Symbolic (non-verbal)
communication:The essence of art is the
communication of
important ideas and other
knowledge through
symbolic (non-verbal)
languages. Good art
communicates its meaning
effectively through this
non-verbal language.
Jacob Ochtervelt, Lady with
Servant and Dog, c. 1671-1673,
oil on canvas, 27 1/8 x 22 7/8 in.
Carnegie Museum of Art, Henry
Lee Mason Memorial Fund
Instrumentalism:
The essence of art
is its usefulness in
helping us to
comprehend and
improve our overall
life experiences.
Good art is always a
means to some
important end.

Romare Bearden, Pittsburgh Memories, 1984,

collage on board, 28 5/8 x 23 1/2 in. Carnegie
Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald
R. Davenport and Mr. and Mrs. Milton A.
Washington
Institutionalism:Art is determined by
status conferred upon it
by the institutions of the
art world not by an
observable property in
Andy
Warhol, the artwork itself.
Brillo Soap
Pads Box,
1964,
silkscreen
ink and
house paint
on Barry Le Va, On Corner - On Edge -
plywood, On Center Shatter (Within the
17 x 17 x 14 Series of Layered Pattern Acts),
in. ©AWF 1968-1971, twenty sheets of glass
59 x 79 in. ( 91 x 150 x 201 cm)
Carnegie Mellon Art Gallery Fund
What should art be
like?
Many goals have been argued for art, and
aestheticians often argue that some goal or another
is superior in some way.
•Formal goals, creative goals, self-expression,
political goals, spiritual goals, philosophical goals,
and even more perceptual or aesthetic goals have all
been popular pictures of what art should be like.
What is the value of art?
• Closely related to the question of what art should be
like is the question of what its value is. Is art a means of
gaining knowledge of some special kind?

• Does it give insight into the human condition? How

does art relate to science or religion?
• Is art perhaps a tool of education, or indoctrination, or
enculturation? Does art make us more moral?

• Can it uplift us spiritually? Is art perhaps politics by

other means? Is there some value to sharing or
expressing emotions?
2.4 What is the value of
art?
• Is art perhaps a tool of education, or
indoctrination, or enculturation? Does art make us
more moral?

• Can it uplift us spiritually? Is art perhaps politics by

other means? Is there some value to sharing or
expressing emotions?
Aesthetic Judgment
• Judgments of aesthetic value clearly rely on our
ability to discriminate at a sensory level.
• Aesthetics examines what makes something
beautiful, sublime, disgusting, fun, cute, silly,
entertaining, pretentious, discordant, harmonious,
boring, humorous, or tragic.
• For Kant, judgments of beauty are sensory,
emotional, and intellectual all at once.
What factors are involved in
Aesthetic Judgment?
Thus, aesthetic judgments might be seen to be based
on the senses, emotions, intellectual opinions, will,
desires, culture, preferences, values, subconscious
behavior, conscious decision, training, instinct,
sociological institutions, or some complex
combination of these, depending on exactly which
theory one employs.
• Aesthetic judgments may be culturally conditioned to
some extent
• Sensory detection is linked in instinctual ways to facial
expressions, and even behaviors like the gag reflex.
• Evaluations of beauty may well be linked to desirability,
perhaps even to sexual desirability.
• Judgments of aesthetic value can become linked to
judgments of economic, political, or moral value.
• Aesthetic judgments seem to often be at least partly
intellectual and interpretative.
Principles of Aesthetics
1. No reasoned argument can conclude that objects are
aesthetically valuable or valueless.

2. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they possess a special

aesthetic property or exhibit a special aesthetic form.

3. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they have the capacity

to convey meaning or to teach general truths.

4. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they have the capacity

to produce pleasure in those who experience or appreciate
them.
Principles of Aesthetics
5. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they have the capacity to
convey values or beliefs central to the cultures or traditions in
which they originate, or important to the artists who made them.

6. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they have the capacity to

help bring about social or political change.

7. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they have the capacity to

produce certain emotions we value, at least when the emotion is
brought about by art rather than by life.

8. Objects are aesthetically valuable if they have the capacity to

produce special non-emotional experiences, such as a feeling of
autonomy or the will suspension of disbelief.
Aesthetic Universal
The philosopher Denis Dutton identified seven universal
signatures in human aesthetics:

1.Expertise or virtuosity. Technical artistic skills are

cultivated, recognized, and admired.

2. Non-utilitarian pleasure. People enjoy art for art's

sake, and don't demand that it keep them warm or put
food on the table.

3. Style. Artistic objects and performances satisfy rules of

composition that place them in a recognizable style.
Aesthetic Universal
4. Criticism. People make a point of judging,
appreciating, and interpreting works of art.

5. Imitation. With a few important exceptions like music

and abstract painting, works of art simulate experiences
of the world.

6. Special focus. Art is set aside from ordinary life and

made a dramatic focus of experience.

7. Imagination. Artists and their audiences entertain

hypothetical worlds in the theater of the imagination.