Kitsch and Perception: Towards a New ‘Aesthetic from Below’

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan A. Ortlieb ◽  
Claus-Christian Carbon
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Response ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Pop Art ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Cognitive Elaboration ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Postmodern Art ◽  
Rich Content

Although kitsch is one of the most important concepts of twentieth-century art theory, it has gone widely unnoticed by empirical aesthetics. In this article we make a case that the study of kitsch is of considerable heuristic value for both empirical aesthetics and art perception. As a descriptive term, kitsch appears like a perfect example of hedonic fluency. In fact, the frequently invoked opposition of kitsch and art reflects two types of aesthetic experience that can be reliably distinguished in terms of processing dynamics: a disfluent one that promises new insights but requires cognitive elaboration (art), and a fluent one that consists of an immediate, unreflective emotional response but leaves us with what we already know (kitsch). Yet as a derogatory word, kitsch draws our attention to a general disregard for effortless emotional gratification in modern Western aesthetics that can be traced back to eighteenth-century Rationalism. Despite all efforts of Pop Art to embrace kitsch and to question normative values in art, current models of aesthetic liking—including fluency-based ones—still adhere to an elitist notion of Modern art that privileges style over content and thereby excludes what is essential not only for popular taste and Postmodern art but also for premodern artistic production: emotionally rich content. Revisiting Fechner’s (Vorschule der Aesthetik, 1876) criticism of highbrow aesthetics we propose a new aesthetic from below (Aesthetik von Unten) that goes beyond processing characteristics by taking content- and context-related associations into account.

scholarly journals Different Approaches to Modern Art and Society: Li Zehou versus Xu Fuguan

Asian Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Téa Sernelj
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Chinese Modernity ◽  
Material Development ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Chinese Aesthetics ◽  
Basic Approaches ◽  
Art And Society ◽  
The Individual

Proceeding from the inseparable relation between ethics and aesthetics in traditional (and often also modern) Chinese thought, this article aims to illuminate two important approaches to the aesthetic foundations of Chinese modernity. The relation between the individual and society, which is a core question of modern ethics, is reflected in most of the ethical theories of 20th century China. In this context, the article first presents Li Zehou’s theory of aesthetics and his definition of aesthetic experience. In this way, it aims to illuminate Li’s interpretation of modern art and society, and to posit it into a contrastive position to Xu Fuguan’s ethico-aesthetic theories, especially the ones regarding modernity and Western culture. The basic approaches applied by these two important modern Chinese scholars reveal great differences in attitude towards the spiritual and material development of humanity in the 20th century, which is especially interesting since they are both rooted in the abovementioned belief that ethics cannot be separated from aesthetics. Besides, Li Zehou sincerely admired Xu Fuguan’s work on traditional Chinese aesthetics and referred to his comprehension of general concepts of traditional Chinese aesthetics in many of his own works dealing with aesthetics.

Era Modenisme dan Pascamodenisme: Suatu Transformasi Seni Visual dalam Konteks Sosio-Budaya

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-68
Author(s):  
Mohamad Kamal Abd Aziz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Secondary Research ◽  
Changing Trends ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
Postmodern Art ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Art Critics

This paperwork discusses some theories between modernist and post-modernist thinking that have been evolved in society. The presence of post-modernist thought is said to be anti-modernist. Thus, the question is whether it emerges as anticipation or the occurrence of a transformation shift at its pace in driving the development of art and culture. The objective of this study is to discuss the changing trends of art practitioners in the context of visual art and culture phenomenon today since the era of modernism. However. to what extent is the presence of post-modernist thinking that is said to be anti-modernism put into practice or is modernist thinking dead? The statement also dissects various notions or is it true that there is no precise and clear interpretation or understanding between "modern art" and "postmodern art"? This is also marked by the emergence of various interpretations and the existence of polemics or discussions among scholars, especially in the discourse of art and culture. This study is using secondary research based on various theories of disciplines and conducting an interview with art critics and art historians in resolving this question. Although there are various doubts in the separation between "modernism" and "postmodernism" but it provides an interesting input that is often associated with the emergence of some characteristics of the postmodern era thought and style that differs in terms of ideas, concepts, approaches, materials, appearance, presentation, ideas, interpretation and it is meaning that leads to the transformation of visual arts in the current socio-cultural context.

scholarly journals ‘Colouring’ — Material Depiction in Flemish and Dutch Baroque Art Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 243-265
Author(s):  
Lisa Wiersma
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Surface Effects ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
Baroque Art ◽  
Human Flesh

Seventeenth-century painters were masters at painting objects and beings that seem tangible. Most elaborate was painting translucent materials like skins and pulp: human flesh and grapes, for instance, require various surface effects and suggest the presence of mass below the upper layers. Thus, the viewer is more or less convinced that a volume or object is present in an illusionary space. In Dutch, the word ‘stofuitdrukking’ is used: expression or indication of material, perhaps better understood as rendering of material. In English, ‘material depiction’ probably captures this painterly means best: it includes rendering of surface effects, while revealing the underlying substance, and it implies that weight and mass are suggested. Simple strokes of paint add up to materials and things that are convincingly percieved. At first glance, material depiction hardly seems a topic in early-modern art theory, yet 17th-century painters are virtually unequalled as regards this elaborate skill. Therefore, 17th-century written sources were studied to define how these might discuss material depiction, if not distinctly. This study concerns one of many questions regarding the incredible convincingness of 17th-century material depiction: besides wondering why the illusions work (Di Cicco et al., this issue) and how these were achieved (Wiersma, in press), the question should be asked why this convincingness was sought after. Was it mere display of ability and skill? And how was material depiction perceived, valued and enjoyed? First, contemporary terminology is determined: the seemingly generic term ‘colouring’ signified the application of convincing material depiction especially — which is not as self-evident as it sounds. Second, and extensively, the reader will find that convincing or appealing material depiction was considered a reference to religion and natural philosophy.

Artistic Vanguards in Brazil, 1917–1967

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gênese Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Art Exhibition ◽  
Social Commitment ◽  
Mario De Andrade ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Concrete Art ◽  
Strong Impulse ◽  
The Way ◽  
Brazilian Theater

The 1922 Modern Art Week is considered the initial landmark of artistic vanguards in Brazil. However, before it was held, Anita Malfatti’s 1917 exhibition, which presented expressionism to Brazilians, and the articles of Oswald de Andrade announcing in the local press the poetry of Mário de Andrade and futurism caused significant polemics and opened the way for renovation. In the middle of the 1920s, the contacts of various artists with European vanguards—especially cubism—and the reinterpretation of the national element and popular culture with the incorporation of this repertoire, with an emphasis on cosmopolitism, established and solidified modernism in various artistic areas. In the 1930s, social commitment, the revalorization of the regional, and adhesion to leftwing ideologies changed the focus of artistic production, leading to the reorganization of groups and the emergence of new protagonists: Patrícia Galvão and Flávio de Carvalho, among others. The return to classic forms and new experimentalisms marked the 1940s and 1950s, characterized by the reappearance of the sonnet, with Vinicius de Moraes, Cecília Meirelles, Murilo Mendes, and Jorge de Lima; renovations in language that reached a peak with Guimarães Rosa; photomontages by Jorge de Lima. Concrete art and poetry, notably the National Concrete Art Exhibition (1956) and neo-concretism, returning to the strategy of the manifestos and journals of the 1920s, revived the same polemical reception and bitter rivalries. In the following decade, the revisiting of Oswald de Andrade’s work, especially the idea of anthropophagy, gave a strong impulse to tropicalism, Cinema Novo, and a greater renewal in Brazilian theater, with the staging of O Rei da Vela by the Teatro Oficina group (1967), the culminating point of a fifty-year cycle of artistic vanguards in Brazil.

Functional neuroanatomy of the perception of modern art: A DC–EEG study on the influence of stylistic information on aesthetic experience

2007 ◽  
Vol 1158 ◽  
pp. 93-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra G. Lengger ◽  
Florian Ph.S. Fischmeister ◽  
Helmut Leder ◽  
Herbert Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy

scholarly journals Associating With Art: A Network Model of Aesthetic Effects

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Specker ◽  
Eiko I. Fried ◽  
Raphael Rosenberg ◽  
Helmut Leder
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Psychological Constructs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Active Interaction

In recent years, understanding psychological constructs as network processes has gained considerable traction in the social sciences. In this paper, we propose the aesthetic effects network (AEN) as a novel way to conceptualize aesthetic experience. The AEN represents an associative process where having one association leads to the next association, generating an overall aesthetic experience. In art theory, associations of this kind are referred to as aesthetic effects. The AEN provides an explicit account of a specific cognitive process involved in aesthetic experience. We first outline the AEN and discuss empirical results (Study 1, N=255) to explore what can be gained from this approach. Second, in Study 2 (N=133, pre-registered) we follow calls in the literature to substantiate network theories by using an experimental manipulation, and found evidence in favor of the AEN over other alternatives. The AEN provides a basis for future studies that can apply a network perspective to different aesthetic experiences and processes. This perspective takes a process-based approach to aesthetic experience, where aesthetic experience is represented as an active interaction between viewer and artwork. If we want to understand how people experience art, it is central to know why people have different experiences with the same artworks, and, also, why people have similar experiences when looking at different artworks. Our proposed network perspective offers a new way to approach and potentially answer these questions.

scholarly journals On Proto-Modernist Traits in Early Modern Art Theory

2018 ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Angelina Milosavljević
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
The Body ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Giorgio Vasari ◽  
Specific Concentration ◽  
Contemporary Practice

Early modern art and art theory are still considered by historians and theorists of art mainly in terms of aesthetic principles in the service of the representation of political and ideological concepts. However, the body of early modern art and especially theory abounds with notions, which anticipate the modernist tendencies of self-criticism. In this paper, we would like to suggest that self-criticism also characterized pre-Modernist art, complemented by advanced art criticism, especially during the Mannerist era. We would like to point out that the notion of self-criticism equally applies to both early modern art and art theory in which the specific concentration on problems of construction and composition of painting based its foundations on abstract mathematical  rules, serving to justify and dignify the medium itself. Furthermore, this tendency divorced the art of painting, specifically, from the illusion of reality, thus entrenching it more firmly in its own area competence, to use Clement Greenberg’s phrase. We would also like to demonstrate that late 16th-century art theory pushed well beyond its time, especially the theory written by artists. Their programmatic reliance on pre-existing pictorial models allowed these artists-theorists to abandon the question of realism and naturalism for pure speculation, which could not have been achieved in contemporary practice. We would like to suggest that ideas of abstraction and speculation, so characteristic of Modernist art, featured well before Modernism in the writings of Mannerist artists and theorists Giorgio Vasari, Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, and Federico Zuccari. Article received: March 26, 2018; Article accepted: April 10, 2018; Published online: September 15, 2018; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Milosavljević, Angelina. "On Proto-Modernist Traits in Early Modern Art Theory." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 16 (2018): 19−28. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i16.251

scholarly journals Primitive and Traditional Art in Modern Art Theory and Practice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Mikhailovna Novikova
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Traditional Culture ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Traditional Art ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Symbolic Content ◽  
Formal Techniques

The article is devoted to identifying the points of contact between primitive and modern cultures. The subject matter is based on the theory and practice of artistic creativity, its origins and aesthetic potential. The article reveals the degree of influence of the figurative-semantic and symbolic content of primitive and traditional culture on modern artistic creativity: on stylistic, formal techniques, themes, images; in General, on artistic thinking.

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