Hello, Andrew Fildes:
An absolute theory is one that is sufficient, can't be refuted, obtains in
all cases with no exceptions, and therefore requires no change. Personal
preference, on the other hand, is rarely sufficient, easily refuted, obtains
in only a few cases, and never stays the same.
Can it be said that an aesthetic absolute existed in late 19th Century
Europe? Hardly. There was this chap Van Gogh. You know the story. So
obviously the creation of an aesthetic absolute came afterward. But exactly
when? Where? And by whom?
And what about burden of proof? Those who insist an aesthetic absolute
exists never take the trouble to prove it. They often make vague allusions
to the ancient Greeks or Romans, but do not cite chapter and verse.
Even intelligent and educated people desperately cling to the absurd notion
not because it exists, but rather because they WISH it did, for obvious
reasons.
Which is, as Emerson once said of love, "a triumph of hope over reason."
John Palcewski
Isola d' Ischia, Italia
Vittoria's Island, an imagenovel:
www.palcewski.com/VI
Photographically illustrated fiction:
www.palcewski.com/stories
From: andrew fildes afildes@netlink.com.au
Reply-to: photoforum@listserver.isc.rit.edu
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students
photoforum@listserver.isc.rit.edu
Subject: Re: Gallery Review - 2/1/03
Date: Sun 02 Feb 2003 18:42:32 + 1100
"Men do not know why they award fame to one work of art rather than
another." --Thomas Mann
But spend a lot of time justifying their choices and trying to 'know.'
Thomas Mann is correct. Largely because an aesthetic absolute, against
which works of art may be evaluated and placed in a heirarchy of value, does
not exist.
Plato and most of the other Greeks would disagree, I think. And many since.
Therefore art criticism can be nothing more than expressions of personal
preference. To which ALL--however brilliant or stupid--are entitled.
And some expressions are well reasoned, beyond mere opinion or stances on
personal taste. And what 'entitles' all to an expression?
Related to this is that virtually any work of art (or proposition, for
that matter) can be successfully defended or attacked, provided one has a
sufficient grasp of rhetoric. Smoke & mirrors, in other words. SNIP John
Palcewski
Ah, now you're beginning to sound like Plato. It's all sophistry, hey?
Hmmmm.
AndrewF
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