DESCRIPTION OF INTERACTIVE
Formalism, influenced by Plato’s (427–448 BCE) metaphysics, is one of the oldest theories of art. Harkening back to his Allegory of the Cave, Plato believed that art was the imitation or appropriation of “reality” - or as Plato coined it, “Forms.” (Definition: Plato's Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas argues that non-physical (but substantial) forms (or ideas) represent the most accurate reality.) He posited that art was nothing more than an imitation of an imitation. It cannot represent reality because it is only a mirror, reflecting what is not, in any case, reality.
Formalism in art emphasizes the way the art is made and how it looks. For example, when judging a painting, a formalist would focus on the use of line, colour, shape, and composition, rather than on its subject matter.
Clive Bell.
Clement Greenberg.
Formalism. Definition: Describes an emphasis on form over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or philosophy.
Cubism. Definition: The first abstract art style, Cubist painting emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective and foreshortening, for example. Cubism refuted time-honoured theories that art should imitate nature.
Minimalism. Definition: Emerging in the 1960s, minimalism in art is characterized by severe simplicity in form, content, and execution.
In Poetics, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) presented a representational, or Imitation Theory of Art, proposing that good art was mimetic. (Definition: Related to the word, “miming,” used in aesthetic or artistic theory to refer to the attempt to imitate or reproduce reality.)
Aristotle believed that art could have a cathartic and beneficial effect on us. For example, watching comedic or dramatic plays that imitated reality, but caused us to feel real emotions, would be a good way to make people think and reflect on human affairs and actions.
Representational art is thus seen as portraying the visible forms of nature, yet it can also involve perspectives of the world, by emphasizing one aspect over another - the beautiful and/or the ugliness, for example.
Pragmatism. Definition: An approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.
Neo-Classicism. Definition: Classicism and Neoclassicism, in the arts is the 18th and early 19th century aesthetic tradition based on the art of Ancient Greece and Rome. It reflected a desire to rekindle the spirit and forms of classical art whose principles of order and reason were entirely in keeping with the European Age of Enlightenment.
Romanticism. Definition: An 18th century art movement that emphasized inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
The Expressionist theory of art places the individual at the centre of art. The standard for assessing the quality of an artwork was no longer an analysis of its composition - art was no longer to be a literal depiction of the outer world, but instead, to be about the artist’s feelings towards the world. David Hume (1711-1776) posited that good art must successfully communicate the feelings intended by the individual artist, and in turn, evoke an emotional response from the viewer.
Immanuel Kant.
Leo Tolstoy.
Paul Cézanne.
Symbolist Art. Definition: Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that first emerged in France in the 1880s. It is characterized by an emphasis on the mystical, romantic, and expressive, and often by the use of symbolic figures.
Abstract Expressionism. Definition: An effort to create a new style fitted to the postwar mood of anxiety and trauma, abstract expressionism blended elements of surrealism and abstract art.
Modernism. Definition: Initially called "avant-garde," the modernist movement sought to rebel against the conventional expectations of the 19th century academic and Victorian traditions. It stressed freedom of expression, experimentation, radicalism and primitivism.
Fauvism. Definition: A style of painting that flourished in France around the turn of the 20th century. It emphasized bright use of colour and expressive application of paint.
A 20th century perspective on art occurred in the wake of new forms of expression and use of materials. Arthur Danto (1924-2013) in his essay, “The Art World,” proposed that a work of art in the modern sense is that which assists us in questioning the old definitions and theories. Art needs to inspire the audience to reflect on the concepts of what is art.
Postmodernism. Definition: Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality.
Dadaism. Definition: An artistic movement in modern art that started around World War I. Its purpose was to ridicule the supposed meaninglessness of the modern world.
Found Art Object. Definition: Art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made.
Rosalind E. Krauss.