Beauty (Part 2) & Duchamp (Part 2)

Mr. DeZilvaApril 4th

Remember…

• Art The expression of Imagination, Creativity, and Emotion

I.C.E• Beauty The quality or qualities of Art that

give the perceiver Pleasure or Satisfaction.

• Aesthetics The experience of critiquing art to discover its potential beauty

Duchamp’s Fountain

What was the point of his Fountain?

• Comment towards Art’s Audience• Comment towards defining “Art”• Comment towards the misguided importance

of an “artistic Author”• Symbolic of humour, usually missing in Art

during that time.• Avante Garde: Experimental/Innovative Art• Symbolic of religious art (and commentary)

Readymades

Quote:

• “Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under a new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.”

Anonymous article in The Blind Man # 2, May 1917. Written by Beatrice Wood, H.P. Roché and/or Marcel Duchamp.

Objective Beauty

1. There are certain qualities that make something beautiful, such as bright colours, smoothness, shape.

2. Beauty is based only on these qualities – by this reasoning, a purple polka-dotted porcupine would NOT be considered beautiful.

Objective Beauty

3. People’s feelings are not to be taken into account when it comes to beauty.

4. If something is judged to be beautiful, everyone should agree with this because the object has the qualities that make things beautiful.

Examples of Objective Beauty?

• Consider the Ancient Greek Philosophers–Plato and his Forms

–Aristotle’s Entelechy: The Form or Essence of an object is within itself and to be fully realized

Ex. of Objective Beauty

• Kant’s Sophisticated Objectivism: An object’s innate qualities (Form) evoke feelings. Universal principles help direct our aesthetic judgments.

Plato: Do the gods love something because it is pious? Or is something Pious because the God’s love it?

• Is Math and Science Beautiful?– If so, are they objectively beautiful?

Subjective Beauty

1. Beauty comes from the amount of pleasure one gets from looking at something.

2. Something is beautiful based on the emotions it produces (if you feel good about something, it must be beautiful).

Subjective Beauty

3. Beauty is NOT found in the object – it exists only in the person’s mind which perceives the object.

4. Everybody’s mind sees beauty differently – tastes vary greatly from person to person, and there is no “wrong” when it comes to beauty.

Examples of Subjective Beauty?

• David Hume: Sophisticated Subjectivism– Universal acceptance of aesthetic judgments is

impossible because not everyone is capable of analyzing objects

– Judgments of beauty originate in the sentiment of the observer.

Ex. of Subjective Beauty

• Hegel: Idealism– The properties we discover in objects depend on

the way that those objects appear to us as perceiving subjects, and not something they possess “in themselves,” apart from our experience of them.

Task & Homework

• Write a question about Art & Beauty on a separate sheet of paper. Keep it anonymous, write clearly. The question should be related to the recent lessons on Art, Beauty, and Duchamp. You will then hand in the question and one of your classmates will be assigned to answer this question in a paragraph (5 – 7 sentences). If the question is not answered, both students will receive a mark of ZERO. **If Absent, please see next slide**

NOTE:

• For those who missed Friday’s class, the same assignment applies to you. You create your own question – make it challenging and thought provoking – and you will answer the same question in the same manner. Still will be due Monday with similar penalties if incomplete!