What is the instiutional theory of art?

1611 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How you define art

Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living contains a preserved tiger shark, suspended in formaldehyde solution in a tank made of glass and steel. With its whole body, teeth and form on display, one would be forgiven for mistaking it for a zoological specimen, found in the natural history section of a museum. Indeed, there is very little about this artwork that could distinguish it from such a display. The tank is unremarkable; the shark is, by and large, nothing special, and Hirst has done nothing to physically alter the specimen’s natural appearance. Yet this is a critically acclaimed piece of work. It, unlike its museum-specimen- cousins, is a work of ‘art’. Hirst’s piece of art is not the first of its kind. Perhaps of note is Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes , which in 1964, first challenged the conception of what is, and is not ‘art’. Much like Hirst’s shark, the boxes were visually indiscernible from their Brillo-box cousins. And, like Hirst’s shark, they too were hailed as great pieces of ‘art’. Such works revolutionised both art at the time and the philosophy of aesthetic thought. For ultimately if one could identify the determinate features between a Warhol and just a Brillo Box, then one could come closer to understanding the conception of ‘art’. This essay will examine the attempt to comprehend this strange phenomenon through the Institutional theory of art that proposes that our notion of ‘art’ is a social construct since works of art are only ‘art’ because they have been approved by a body of people (the ‘artworld’). In doing so I will hopefully show that the Institutional theory of art, despite its power in explaining the existence of works such as Warhol’s and Hirst’s, is a valia... ... middle of paper ... ... reasons at all. They may argue that the art world is closer to understanding what makes and does not make art than the average person on the street. Through experience, and constant exposure to ‘art’, the art world has a better grasp of what ‘it’ is. But again this notion succumbs to circularity since if we knew that the art world was closer to understanding the objective definition of art than just the average person, then we’d have to know what the definition of art was. For example if two people are hunting for treasure, one cannot decipher whether person A is closer than B unless one knows where the treasure is. In conclusion, within the studied material of this essay, the Institutional theory cannot escape Wollheim’s argument. Thus the Institutional theory of art can’t help but succumb to circularity, and, as a result cannot overcome the problems it faces.

Show More
Related

  • Postmodern Art in Andy Warhol´s Silvier Liz as Cleopatra

    1187 Words  | 3 Pages

    The earliest forms of art had made it’s mark in history for being an influential and unique representation of various cultures and religions as well as playing a fundamental role in society. However, with the new era of postmodernism, art slowly deviated away from both the religious context it was originally created in, and apart from serving as a ritual function. Walter Benjamin, a German literary critic and philosopher during the 1900’s, strongly believed that the mass production of pieces has freed art from the boundaries of tradition, “For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependance on ritual” (Benjamin 1992). This particular excerpt has a direct correlation with the work of Andy Warhol, specifically “Silver Liz as Cleopatra.” Andy Warhol’s rendition of Elizabeth Taylor are prime examples of the shift in art history that Benjamin refers to as the value of this particular piece is based upon its mass production, and appropriation of iconic images and people.

    Read More

  • The Map of Art History Uses Order and Classification by Listing of Fields, Library System, and Plotting in Space and Time

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    The discipline in art history is a requirement that’s needed to be accorded to abilities and power to control or judge the borders that can be accepted or decline people and objects to teach for transmitting values to peers. Are examples the author uses for the understanding of discipline in art history is that structures are seldom to less studies and relation to present views, such as students who attend and introductory class are to read a survey book, or follow recommendation of curriculums whenever a colleague retires. Other examples he show are a chair that justifies and the dean endorses a replacement postion then the recent Ph.D. is to be hired, whenever the discipline or subfield. The disciplinary in art history is the gaze upon an issue and the issue. During the essay he will deliberately avoid most public and visual manifestation which was the museum, according to Robert Nelson (The Map of Art History, 28).

    Read More

  • Artistic Rebellion: A Case Study of Kandinsky and Duchamp

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    Art is trapped in the cage of society, constantly being judged and interpreted regardless of the artist’s intent. There is no escaping it, however, there are ways to manage and manipulate the cage. Two such examples are Kandinsky 's Little Pleasures, and Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. Both pieces were very controversial and judged for being so different in their time, but they also had very specific ways of handling the criticism and even used it to their advantage. We will be looking at the motivations for each artwork, what made the art so outrageous, and the public’s reaction to the pieces.

    Read More

  • The End of Painting by Douglas Crimp

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    In existential thought it is often questioned who decides what is right and what is wrong. Our everyday beliefs based on the assumption that not everything we are told may be true. This questioning has given light to the subjective perspective. This means that there is a lack of a singular view that is entirely devoid of predetermined values. These predetermined values are instilled upon society by various sources such as family to the media. On a societal level this has given rise to the philosophy of social hype. The idea of hype lies in society as the valuation of something purely off someone or some group of people valuing it. Hype has become one of the main driving forces behind what society considers to be good art and how successful artists can become while being the main component that leads to a wide spread belief, followed by its integration into subjective views. Its presence in the art world propagates trends, fads, and limits what we find to be good art. Our subjective outlook on art is powered by society’s feedback upon itself. The art world, high and low, is exploited by this social construction. Even when objective critique is the goal subjective remnants can still seep through and influence an opinion. Subjective thought in the art world has been self perpetuated through regulated museums, idolization of the author, and general social construction because of hype.

    Read More

  • Revolutionary Work of Art

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    Walter Benjamin emphasizes in his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility” that technology used to make an artwork has changed the way it was received, and its “aura”. Aura represents the originality and authenticity of a work of art that has not been reproduced. The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is an example of a work that has been and truly a beacon of art. It has brought a benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting, and it has an exemplary aura that cannot be replaced. A picture taken of the Sistine Chapel is just an imaged “captured”, while the painting is still original, because it is not movable, and its cult value is still intact. He asserts that the origin of an artwork gave its aura and authenticity and since it is not moveable, it does not have the ability to be reproduced by other artists. Therefore, the aura and authenticity is autocratic. For instance, the Sistine Chapel is owned and controlled by the Vatican—Catholic Cardinals. They control its usage to the masses. Once art becomes available to the masses, it becomes in a way ‘successful.’ In addition, he calls to attention that the forces of commercialization have subjected the aura of an artwork to cheapening cult value, which is a positive outcome for the masses.

    Read More

  • Art and Republicanism

    3136 Words  | 7 Pages

    ABSTRACT: Republicanism is contrasted with liberalism with special reference to the notions of presence, absence and representation. The contrast is more conspicuous in the Platonic tradition of republicanism than it is in the Aristotelian tradition, the former being more likely to degenerate into some form of totalitarianism. Examples thereof are given in accordance with the distinction between a strong and a soft iconoclasm, as it is found both in Antiquity and in Eastern and Western Europe’s quest for absolute presence or—as in avantgarde art of modernity—for absolute self-presence of the work of art. Having left such political and artistic utopias behind it, the pendulum is now swinging back in the direction of representation, but no longer in the illusionist sense which has dominated Western art form the Renaissance to the beginning of our century. Tied to the question of iconoclasm is the debate about the end of art inaugurated by Hegel in the general introduction to his Aesthetics and resumed in our days.

    Read More

  • Ways of Seeing by John Berger

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger explains several essential aspects of art through influence of the Marxism and art history that relates to social history and the sense of sight. Berger examines the dominance of ideologies in the history of traditional art and reflects on the history, class, and ideology as a field of cultural discourse, cultural consumption and cultural practice. Berger argues, “Realism is a powerful link to ownership and money through the dominance of power.”(p.90)[1] The aesthetics of art and present historical methodology lack focus in comparison to the pictorial essay. In chapter six of the book, the pictorial imagery demonstrates a variety of art forms connoting its realism and diversity of the power of connecting to wealth in contradiction to the deprived in the western culture. The images used in this chapter relate to one another and state in the analogy the connection of realism that is depicted in social statues, landscapes, and portraiture, also present in the state of medium that was used to create this work of art.

    Read More

  • Institutional Critique

    1945 Words  | 4 Pages

    When someone enters an art gallery, they believe they are going to view art, but under the guise of Institutional Critique, this notion often false. Instead of being the traditional art of painting, sculptures, and installations, viewers encounter, in the work of Hans Haacke, Daniel Buren, and Michael Asher in the 1970s, not much to look at, but a lot to think about. In essence, Institutional Critique is a protest against museums/galleries demanding them to view art and art exhibition in new ways, exemplified by Conceptual art where words, video, readymades, and even ideas are art. Institutional Critique manifested from the protests of the 1960s, one of which philosopher Michel Foucault participated in Paris, 1968. Clearly, Institutional Critique gathered its raison d’être from these protests and imported them into the gallery space, but these protests continue today in the Occupy movements, highlighting Institutional Critique’s lasting impression and influence. Some key elements of Institutional Critique are site-specificity, its lack of commodification, WHAT ELSE. To understand Institutional Critique better, it is necessary to analyze the early works in this methodology through the works of Hans Haacke, Daniel Buren, and Michael Asher, but all other these works use the methodology to analyze different aspects of the art institution, but these uses of Institutional Critique cohesively display the main aspect of the methodology: protest. After all, Conceptual art is an avant-garde movement that in essence is a protest against mainstream art forms. Adding Michel Foucault’s “A Lecture from Power/Knowledge” to the discourse will further highlight the aspects of Institutional Critique, but also display its current relevancy to the Occ...

    Read More

  • Conditions of Trade, by Michael Baxandall

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article “Conditions of Trade,” Michael Baxandall explains the interaction serving of both fifteenth- century Italian painting and text on how the interpretation of social history from the style of pictures in a historical period, pre-eminently examine the early Renaissance painting. Baxandall looks not only on the explanation of how the style of painting is reflected in a society, but also engages in the visual skills and habits that develop out of daily life. The author examines the central focus on markets, material visual practices, and the concept of the Renaissance period overlooking art as an institution. He observes a Renaissance painting, which relate the experience of activities such as preaching, dancing, and assessing. The author considers discussions of a wide variety of artistic painters, for instance, Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, and numerous others. He defines and exemplifies concepts used in contemporary critic of the painting, and in the assembled basic equipment needed to discover the fifteenth- century art. Therefore this introductory to the fifteenth- century Italian painting and arise behind the social history, argues that the two are interconnected and that the conditions of the time helped shape the distinctive elements in the artists painting style. Through the institutional authorization Baxandall looks at integration in social, cultural and visual evaluation in a way that shows not only the visual art in social construction, but how it plays a major role in social orders in many ways, from interaction to larger social structural orders.

    Read More

  • Rasheed Araeen: New Internationalism

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    The questionable influence and dominance of western culture is at the forefront of a new form of seemingly ephemeral diplomatic history that is termed ‘new internationalism’. Internationalism itself is not really a new concept, and is basically a system based on equality for all people and cultures on a global scale. In the global art world ‘new internationalism’ is an active topic and was the focus of a 1994 INIVA Symposium entitled, A New International Symposium. The topics discussed included: Recording the International; Art, History and the Modern Museum; Beyond Diversity and Difference; Curatorship and International Exhibitions.1 During his lecture at the symposium, sculptor, essayist and poet Jimmie Durham puts forth the idea that, “…Europeans seem to think that, as art is their invention, effective art is within a developed vocabulary and accent…”2 This kind of statement emphasizes the enormous task of disuniting ‘actual’ art history from that recorded under the influence of western culture, and it demonstrates the long-standing influence of imperial thinking.

    Read More

  • Confronting Images

    1639 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Confronting Images, Didi-Huberman considers disadvantages he sees in the academic approach of art history, and offers an alternative method for engaging art. His approach concentrates on that which is ‘visual’ long before coming to conclusive knowledge. Drawing support from the field of psycho analytics (Lacan, Freud, and Kant and Panofsky), Didi-Huberman argues that viewers connect with art through what he might describe as an instance of receptivity, as opposed to a linear, step-by-step analytical process. He underscores the perceptive mode of engaging the imagery of a painting or other work of art, which he argues comes before any rational ‘knowing’, thinking, or discerning. In other words, Didi-Huberman believes one’s mind ‘sees’ well before realizing and processing the object being looked at, let alone before understanding it. Well before the observer can gain any useful insights by scrutinizing and decoding what she sees, she is absorbed by the work of art in an irrational and unpredictable way. What Didi-Huberman is s...

    Read More

  • Relationship between Mechanical Reproduction, Art and Culture

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    Horkheimer and Adorno’s The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception and Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction are two texts that to depict how technology, the modes of production, have allowed the mechanical reproduction of works of art to change our culture society. Horkheimer and Adorno evolve from the works of Benjamin to to create the idea of the business ideology being formed from this mass production and consumption. The mode of production that shaped the art and culture of the twentieth century is mechanical reproduction. Horkheimer, Adorno and Benjamin write about how this mode of production shapes the cultural identity of society.

    Read More

  • Plato Vs. Aristotle on Art

    1982 Words  | 4 Pages

    For over two thousand years, various philosophers have questioned the influence of art in our society. They have used abstract reasoning, human emotions, and logic to go beyond this world in the search for answers about arts' existence. For philosophers, art was not viewed for its own beauty, but rather for the question of how art and artists can help make our society more stable for the next generation. Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived during 420-348 B.C. in Athens, and Aristotle, Plato’s student who argued against his beliefs, have no exceptions to the steps they had to take in order to understand the purpose of art and artists. Though these two philosophers made marvelous discoveries about the existence of art, artists, and aesthetic experience, Plato has made his works more controversial than Aristotle.

    Read More

  • Definition Essay - What is Art?

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are three advantages to this sort of a definition for art. The first is that it does not limit us to specific media. Art by this definition can be found acted out on a stage, sent over a computer network, hung on a wall, or typed onto a page. The second is that it does not rely on the reaction of the audience to the art. The artist creates art whether or not his attempt at communication is success...

    Read More

  • A Simple Definition of Art

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Art can be defined in many ways by an individual. One can say that any creative output by a person is considered art. Others contend that art must conform to a societal standard and the basis of the creation should be understood by most intellectual people. For example, some contend that computer-generated images, such as fractals, are not art due to the large role played by a computer. E.O. Wilson states “the exclusive role of the arts is to intensify aesthetic and emotional response. Works of art communicate feeling directly from mind to mind, with no intent to explain why the impact occurs” (218). A simple definition may be that art is the physical expression of the ideals formed by the mind.

    Read More

More about What is the instiutional theory of art?

Open Document