Greenberg`s Essentialism

Transcription

“After the End of Art”
Arthur Danto
Conclusion
1
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Greenberg’s Essentialism: “Modernist Painting”
Greenberg’s Essentialism
The general subject of Greenberg’s analysis is Modernist Art.
His method is derived from Kant.
The goal is justification of art by means of critique.
The critique itself is internal to art.
The process of justification is pursued medium by medium.
Greenberg’s particular focus is on the medium of Modernist painting.
The conclusion will be that the essence of modernist
painting is flatness.
The starting point is the work of Edouard Manet.
Nadar, Edouard Manet, 1874
Critical Digression: Manet’s Paris
Haussmannization of Paris
Camille Pissarro, Avenue de l'Opera, 1898
Avenue de l'Opera
Avenue de l'Opera
Jean Béraud, La rue de la Paix, 1900
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris, A Rainy Day, 1877
Degas, Place de la Concorde, 1875
Flaneur
Degas, Women on a Cafe Terrace, Evening, 1877
Charles Marville, Rue de Sept-Voies de la Rue St. Hilaire, c.1865
Critical Digression
Edouard Manet, The Absinthe Drinker, 1858-9
Critical Digression
Edouard, Manet, The Street Singer, c.1862
Critical Digression
Edouard Manet, The Old Musician, 1862
Critical Digression
Potteau (active 1862-65), Jean Lagrene, 1865
Critical Digression
Henri Fantin-Latour, Edouard Manet, 1867
Late 1865, Madrid
Critical Digression
Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas, 1656
Late 1865, Madrid
Critical Digression
Diego Velazquez, Menippus, 1636-40
Cynic Philosopher, c. 250 BCE
Late 1865, Madrid
Critical Digression
Diego Velazquez, Aesop, c. 1639-40
Critical Digression
Édouard Manet, A Philosopher (Beggar in a Cloak), ca. 1864–67
Critical Digression
Edouard Manet, The Ragpicker, 1869
Critical Digression
Diego Velázquez, The Triumph of Bacchus (The Drinkers), 1628-29
Critical Digression
Themes
Claude Monet, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, (right section), 1865–1866
Critical Digression
Claude Monet, Jardin à Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Themes
Critical Digression
Themes
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Loge (The Theater Box), 1874
Critical Digression
Themes
Mary Cassatt, Woman in Black at the Opera, 1879
Back to Greenberg’s Argument
Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass (Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe), 1863
Marcantonio Raimondi, The Judgment of Paris (detail)
Titian, The Concert (Le Concert champêtre), 1510
Titian, The Concert (Le Concert champêtre), 1510
Attention drawn to the flat surface and arrangement of figures.
Edouard Manet, The Fifer, 1866
Post-Madrid
Edouard Manet, Bar at the Folies-Bergeres, 1881-82
Attention drawn to the flat surface and arrangement of figures.
Claude Monet, Water Lillies 1, 1908
Emphasis on brushstroke and direct application of paint.
Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte Victoire, 1904-6
Composition determined in relation to the rectangular shape of the canvas.
Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
Note that shape and color are shared with other arts and mediums.
Pablo Picasso, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1910
The most fundamental feature of painting is its flatness.
Piet Mondrian, Stammer Mill with Streaked Sky, 1905-7
Piet Mondrian, Trees, c. 1912
Piet Mondrian, View from the Dunes with Beach and Piers, 1909
Henri Matisse, The Dinner Table, 1896-97
Henri Matisse, Carmelina, 1903
Henri Matisse, Piano Lesson, 1916
Joan Miro, Catalan Landscape (The Hunter), 1923-24
Piet Mondrian, Composition, 1921
Fernand Leger, Composition, 1924
Adolph Gottlieb, Division, 1948
Franz Kline, New York, N.Y., 1953
Hans Hofmann, Radiance, 1956
Clyfford Still, 1957-D No. 1, 1957
Lee Krasner, Untitled, 1949
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm, 1950
Mark Rothko, Untitled,1949
Helen Frankenthaler. Mountains and Sea, 1952
Morris Louis, Saraband, 1959
Barnett Newman, Onement I, 1948
Barnett Newman, Dionysius, 1949
Danto’s Narrative
Danto’s Essentialism
Danto’s philosophical account of art takes a narrative approach —
a progressive developmental history.
MIMESIS
1000 AD
MODERNISM
2000 AD
“‘Imitation’ [mimesis] was the standard philosophical answer to the question
of what art is from Aristotle down into the nineteenth century, and well into
the twentieth.” [AEA, 46]
But in the 19th century, mimesis started to appear as just a style, not the
style of art. When this happened, art became caught up in a philosophical
task — the search for an answer to the question “What is art?”.
MIMESIS
1000 AD
MODERNISM
2000 AD
Danto points out that Clement Greenberg “recognized this as a general
historical truth, and, at the same time, tried to provide his own
philosophical definition.” [AEA, 68]
Morris Louis, Saraband, 1959
Danto’s Historical Narrative
So what is Danto’s philosophical definition of “art”?
As an essentialist in philosophy, I am committed to the view that art is eternally the same — that
there are conditions necessary and sufficient for something to be an artwork, regardless of time
and place. [95, emphasis added.]
Problem of Ambiguity
Note the use of both “art” and “artwork” in Danto’s statement.
What precisely is Danto trying to define?
Danto’s position on art is both essentialist and historicist.
As an essentialist in philosophy, I am committed to the view that art is eternally the same — that
there are conditions necessary and sufficient for something to be an artwork, regardless of time
and place.
But as an historicist I am also committed to the view that what is a work of art at one time
cannot [may not?] be one at another, and in particular that there is a history of art, in which the
essence of art — the necessary and sufficient conditions — are painfully brought to
consciousness.” [AEA, 95, emphases added.]
So the definition of art Danto settles on must be transhistorical and
universal, but the set of objects which satisfy those conditions can be
historical and contingent. (Cf. obscenity.)
Horses from the Hillaire Chamber, Chauvet Cave. Credit: French Ministry of Culture and
Communication, Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs, Rhône-Alpes region, Regional
Department of Archeology.
Duccio, Madonna and Child with Six Angels, c.
1300-1305
MIMESIS
MODERNISM
1300 AD
Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child,
1440/1445
2000 AD
Édouard Manet, A
Philosopher (Beggar in a
Cloak), ca. 1864–67
Andy Warhol, Brillo Soap Pads Box, 1964
“I subscribe to a narrative of the history of modern art in which pop plays the philosophically central role.” [AEA, 122]
Attempt at a Definition
“To be a work of art is to be (i) about something and (ii) to embody its meaning.” [AEA, 195]
Danto takes these two conditions to be necessary attributes of art,
but not sufficient. Why?
Problems
Danto’s approach may be too narrow, given that it’s focused almost
exclusively on western painting.
Danto may place too much emphasis on the work of art as opposed to the
activity of making and appreciating art.
Danto’s Question
“What makes the difference between a work of art and something not a work
of art when there is no interesting perceptual difference between them?”
Our Question
Should we be able to recognize something as a visual work of art
just by looking?
A Possible Response
If you cannot identify a visual work of art from something which is not a
work of art just by looking, maybe it’s not a work of art.
Transfiguration of the Commonplace
It seems to me now that part of the immense popularity of pop lay in the fact that it
transfigured the things or kinds of things that meant most to people, raising them to
the status of subjects of high art. [AEA, 129, emphasis added.]
Just being left alone to live in the world pop raised to consciousness was as good a
life as anyone could want. [AEA, 131]
Problems
Can we so easily ignore the distinction between art and everyday life?
Are there other narratives of art that include social issues of concern to
everyone?
What would Andy think?
Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1964
Sing-Sing
Death Penalty in NY
Timothy Quigley, 2012

Greenberg`s Essentialism

Transcription

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