Art Scholar Ties Philosophy To Contemporary Art
By Anna Fry
BENTONVILLE — A painting can have taste but lack spirit and there’s no remedy for lack of spirit, art scholar Arthur Danto said.
Danto, Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University and art critic for The Nation, gave a lecture Sunday in the auditorium of the Old High Middle School. The lecture was the first of a series presented by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Art was revolutionized in New York in the 1960s, Danto said. He began thinking then about how to apply the aesthetic works of the philosophical tradition to what was happening, he said.
He drew Sunday from the works of 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Some of Kant’s thoughts cast valuable light on contemporary works of art, Danto said.
“Spirit, in (Kant’s) view, really is something that is internally connected with cognitive faculties, connected with knowledge,” Danto said, adding that’s what connects Kant to contemporary art.
Kant speaks of spirit as “the animating principle of the mind,” Danto said. The idea is presented to and through the senses.
Danto illustrated his points by projecting artwork Kant wrote about. He showed an image of the Roman god Jupiter holding lightning bolts.
That image is stronger than words saying Jupiter is mighty, Danto said. The picture portrays the extraordinary power that the king of the gods possesses, he said.
Today art can be made of anything, Danto said, and the surface can represent any idea.
“That puts great interpretive pressure on viewers to grasp the way the spirit of the artist undertook to present the ideas that concerned her or him,” he said.
Danto thinks people need to ask the question, “What is it about?” when thinking about art and then examine how the work embodies the answer, he said.
Danto cut his lecture short to answer questions from audience members. A book signing and reception at Crystal Bridges at the Massey followed the lecture.
