ESSAY 7b
Discretionary and Disposable
QUESTION: Look back on the art of the last 4,000 years that we have just explored and, if it can be truly considered an asset to humanity, how was it ever considered discretionary and, if ever, disposable?
Part I.
SUMMARY: In all art, there is context: the history, the movement of ideas, and what has come before. Some people might say that all art is quantifiable, even if subjectively. In assessing and appreciating art, we look at quality of execution, the importance within an artistic movement, its place in art history, and brilliance of vision.
I believe it is important to recognize that both disposable and discretionary art are assets to humanity because they have the capacity to add something of value to humanity to a greater extent than humanity depletes its things of value. The most unique contribution of art is that it enhances human progress through imagination.
“It is important to shift understandings of what is important and characteristic about the art process from its physical manifestations in the ‘expressive object’ to the process in its entirety, a process whose fundamental element is no longer the material ‘work of art’ but rather the development of an ‘experience’. Through the expressive object, the artist and the active observer encounter each other, their material and mental environments, and their culture at large.” (Art as Experience, John Dewey, 1934)
Constantino Brumidi's "The Apotheosis of Washington" on the canopy of the Capitol Rotunda in the United States Capitol Building.
REASON: I believe you asked this question because throughout the many years, art has had many influences. This question challenges us to look at art throughout the ages as having contributed to humanity. It is actually seeing art as one of the greatest intellectual achievements in the history of humanity. (Dewey)
Wesiman Art Museum
PURPOSE: I believe the purpose of this question is to help us recognize that art appeals directly to our senses and imagination and therefore expand and intensify the experience of our lives. For example, we value objects because they are interesting. We don't just buy a piece of furniture, we buy one that looks interesting and pleases us to look at.
I believe it is also intended to help us consider how past civilizations have conceptualized art.
DIRECTION: This question has helped me to understand that you have to be completely open-minded when appreciating art. Just because someone considers one form of art to be better than another doesn’t mean it is so. Dewey wrote that “there is no one word to combine "artistic" and "aesthetic," unfortunately, but "artistic" refers to the production, the doing and making, and "aesthetic" to appreciating, perceiving, and enjoying. For a work to be art, it must also be aesthetic. The work of the artist is to build an experience that will be experienced aesthetically.”
IMPRESSIONS: Art requires dedication and reflection, and is experienced by both the artist and the audience. An artist must reflect on past experience as well as the emotions and meanings associated with that experience. I learned that for this to be converted into artistic expression, there has to be a good balance of both excitement and frustration with the desire to outwardly express oneself. I believe art is both expressed and experienced when there is complete absorption.
The Art Critic by Normal Rockwell 1955, Detroit Institute of Arts
What helped me to more fully understand this was the following passage:
“A painting by Van Gogh of a bridge is not representative of a bridge or even of Van Gogh's emotion. Rather, by means of pictorial presentation, Van Gogh presents the viewer with a new object in which emotion and external scene are fused. He selects material with a view to expression, and the picture is expressive to the degree that he succeeds.”
Van Gogh - Langlois Bridge 1888
Part II
QUESTION: Look back on the art of the last 4,000 years that we have just explored and, if it can be truly considered an asset to humanity, how was it ever considered discretionary and, if ever, disposable?
Discretionary art allows the violation or transgression of the rules that define and govern it. In other words it is art that does not constrains the artist. It essentially opened the door for interpretation. But I believe that art is not discretionary but that it is actually necessary. It makes us feel good. It brings back memories of places we remember, and it reminds us of the things we love.
The Tragic Muse: Art and Emotion 1700-1900
In The Shaping of Art History: Meditations on a Discipline, I believe Patricia Emison uses a good analogy. Of discretionary art, she wrote that it “helped open the door for the idea that interpretations could be offered like flowers in a bouquet, jostling against one another for attention, rather than like a single long-stem rose.
Art that is considered disposable offers vision but there is nothing "special" about the artwork that gives it any intrinsic value over discretionary art. It is art that cannot truly be appreciated for its uniqueness or influence. Like conceptual art, disposable art requires narrative because it is nowhere to be seen.
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Historically, some theories have been known to favor certain heavily-classicized forms of art, also known as 'High Art' or Fine Art. It is easier, it seems, to create disposable art than truly meaningful art but I think the quality of art is most important. Glorifying art can actually separate it from life and the community by preventing people from realizing the artistic value of their daily activities.
“We must recover the continuity of aesthetic experience with the normal processes of living. It is the duty of the theorist to make this connection and its implications clear. If art were understood differently by the public, art would gain in public esteem and have wider appeal.” (Dewey)
I believe that the aesthetic experience Dewey refers to cannot really be distinguished from other experiences, but can aesthetically be felt and emotionally experienced. “That” is art.
