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Art Circle: A Theory of Art
Brand new and unused.
- GenresArtPhilosophyNonfiction
116 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2005
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118 people want to read
About the author
George Dickie
33 books3 followersGeorge Dickie is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at University of Illinois at Chicago. His specialities include aesthetics, philosophy of art and Eighteenth Century theories of taste.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 16, 2008
This is George Dickie's attempt to improve his institutional theory of art that he first put forward in Art and the Aesthetic.
The theory is about what makes an object a work of art and he claims it gives both the necessary and the sufficient conditions for art. Put roughly and shorty, something is art because of the place it occupies in the artworld.
The idea of this theory is to be able to explain ready-mades and pieces of art like Duchamp's Fountain. All works of art are artifacts, that is, they are made by humans, but a piece can also achieve artifactuality by being taken and put into the right context and being used as an artistic medium. Artifactuality is a necessary condition of art.
The theory is very circular - circular in a good way, according to Dickie. An artist is person who creates works of art with understanding. A work of art is an artifact created to be presented to an artworld public. This public is a set of persons who in some degree are prepared to understand objects which are presented to them - and the artworld is then the totality of all artworld system. And finally, this artworld is the framework for the presentatoin of a work of art by an artist to the artworld public.
One can ask onself, how it all began - since all the concepts are dependent on each other, it's kind of hard to see how it all could start...
The theory is not about being able to distinguish between good and bad art, it just shows how to tell art from non-art.
The theory is about what makes an object a work of art and he claims it gives both the necessary and the sufficient conditions for art. Put roughly and shorty, something is art because of the place it occupies in the artworld.
The idea of this theory is to be able to explain ready-mades and pieces of art like Duchamp's Fountain. All works of art are artifacts, that is, they are made by humans, but a piece can also achieve artifactuality by being taken and put into the right context and being used as an artistic medium. Artifactuality is a necessary condition of art.
The theory is very circular - circular in a good way, according to Dickie. An artist is person who creates works of art with understanding. A work of art is an artifact created to be presented to an artworld public. This public is a set of persons who in some degree are prepared to understand objects which are presented to them - and the artworld is then the totality of all artworld system. And finally, this artworld is the framework for the presentatoin of a work of art by an artist to the artworld public.
One can ask onself, how it all began - since all the concepts are dependent on each other, it's kind of hard to see how it all could start...
The theory is not about being able to distinguish between good and bad art, it just shows how to tell art from non-art.
Displaying 1 of 1 review