Apollo’s Refraction - Part 2
by Scot Kelly
In part 1 or Apollo’s Refraction, I discussed briefly 3 broad categories that we use to evaluate and value art. In this 2nd segment, I will give some examples and further elucidation of the 1st 2 of these categories.
Intuition
According to Wikipedia, “Intuition is an immediate form of knowledge in which the knower is directly acquainted with the object of knowledge.” For example when I see the color green, I am immediately aware of the greenness of the shade. This has been encoded as a result of actual experiences. My actual response to this greenness is derived from those historical experiences as well as direct and indirect cultural and environmental influences.
For example a dark green may elicit a calming response in an individual who has spent long periods in evergreen forests. Another individual (e.g. a sailor involved in a shipwreck) may become apprehensive when viewing the same dark green based on his or her experiences with violent sea states of the same color. Though the intuitional response to an aesthetic cue is immediate and at the unconscious level, it varies in manifestation according to the historical (cultural and environmental) experiences encoded in the particular individual
Emotion
When looking at emotion in relation to how we judge and value art, there appears to be 2 perspectives. The first is the artist’s emotional intent and the second is the art viewer’s emotional response. What is interesting is that these 2 emotions can be diametrically opposed based on cultural and environmental influences.
The nineteenth-century Romantic movement was characterized by artists projecting emotion into the fabric of their paintings. They painted scenes from stories, fairy tales, nature, other cultures, etc. to evoke this emotion. Many paintings have become accepted archetypes for a particular emotion.
I contend that the emotion that the artist is attempting to evoke is of more importance to an art dealer, art critic and the art market in general than to an individual art collector who is viewing an art piece. Let me give an example of this. When I view “Clipper in a Heavy Sea” by James E. Butterworth I feel uplifted and inspired to “go to sea”. I grew up in a fishing village on Cape Cod and spent time navigating in the US Navy. Therefore, ships in storms get my adrenaline going and give me feelings of pride linked to mastery of nature, in this case the ocean and storms. However, there are many a landlubber who would feel a certain trepidation if not terror and gloom when viewing this same painting. Which of these feelings is what James E. Butterworth intended? As an individual viewer of his art with no connection to the deceased artist, I cannot give an answer. However, the professional art community most likely has chronicled Mr. Butterworth’s life, artistic inspirations, sentiments, intentions, etc. and has marketed this painting based on this researched artist milieu.
And now I will ask the reader to decide which emotion is more important, the artist’s intent or the viewer’s reaction? I have my own thoughts but will discuss them in the next segment (Part 3 of Apollo’s Refraction) because the answer lies in the category of Rationality.