Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 5 Number 1, April 2004
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Davies, Stephen and Sukla, Anata Ch. (eds.) Art and Essence. Westport, CT.: Praeger Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-275-97766-8.
Reviewed by
Griffith University, USA
The editors have put together a thoughtfully sequenced and interrelated series of essays on art and its essence, beginning with an exploration of attempts to define and theorise about the nature of art. The problems inherent in these approaches quickly become evident – the very term definition implying an essentialism which limits the freedom of both expression and appreciation . Theories are shown from historical perspectives to be subject to demise via supersedence and to be highly subjective from philosophical and cultural perspectives ( Davies: ‘Essential Distinctions for Art Theorists’).
The divisions between art and nature form some of the earliest philosophical discussions represented in the book. The borders between art and nature are interrogated as unsustainable sites of difference between the two fields. Where do we draw the line or even can we draw the line between art and nature? Nature as art /art as nature. The role and nature of aesthetics are also discussed in view of this dichotomy (Ross: ‘Nature, Gardens, Art’). Since the Platonic definition of art as mimetic process emerging from nature in contrast to Aristotle’s belief that art extends nature, (Santoro-Brienza: ‘Art and Beauty in Antiquity and the Middle Ages’), we see, through the book’s dialectic focus, the theories and definitions become increasingly more isolationist by dint of their increased complexity. Most of the dissertations on the role of aesthetics are mainly applicable to fine art and some opinions are dismissive of primitive artefacts as non-art (Shiner: ‘Western and non-Western Concepts of Art: Universality and Authenticity’). When we consider the whole gamut of artistic expression and appreciation, including literary/poetic, the theories appear even more exclusive. We also see that the thoughts of many of the philosophers discussed in these essays were not dedicated to art but rather applied to it
The philosophical “isms” , transcendentalism, empiricism, existentialism, nihilism, modernism, post modernism have all had a voice in the analysis of art and are represented in the collection in a manner that serves to illustrate the evolution of both art and the ideas applicable to it – culminating in the post modern view and celebration of difference. When we take an overview of art history and the sheer volume of work to consider, this would appear an enlightened stance.
Another interesting exploration in this anthology is the dichotomy between expression and appreciation of art. This is expressed from both cultural and philosophical viewpoints. Eastern philosophy is represented through a discussion of Japanese understanding of art in the Zen tradition as a journey by the artist into the essence of an object, illustrated by the artistic reduction to a minimalist depiction of the concept of an object rather than an illustration of the object (Yuriko Saito: ‘Art in the Japanese Aesthetic Tradition’). The western views on contextualism and constructivism further express this dichotomy in the contextualist belief that all meaning is inherent in the work as intended by the artist, as opposed to the constructivist view that work has no meaning until it is read through the subjectivity of the viewer (Stecker: ‘The Ontology of Art Interpretation’). Like most of the ideas represented in this volume, they cannot be considered in relation to the works being discussed, as there is a lack of visual representation in the anthology.
At the end of the volume I was left with an urge to read more on the topic, to see an expansion of the themes expressed therein. The editorial strength of the book lies in the connectedness of the works it contains, leaving a strong sense of the evolutionary aspects of art consciousness – as evident in the historical exploration of ideas – the subjective, cultural and philosophical aspects of art theories, the complexity of the problems of aesthetics and criticism and the conflicts and dialects pressuring discussions about the essence of art.