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ART Criticism: Four Principal Approaches

The document outlines four principal approaches to art criticism: mimetic (based on subject matter), expressive (based on the artist), pragmatic (based on the audience), and aesthetic or formal (based on form). It discusses each approach in detail, explaining their origins and how critics have used them to analyze and appreciate artworks. The mimetic approach judges art based on the beauty and significance of its subject matter, while the expressive approach focuses on how the artist expresses themselves through their work. The pragmatic approach evaluates art based on its usefulness to audiences, and the formal/aesthetic approach believes a work's artistic merit comes from its form rather than its content or popularity.

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Quenard Medillo Gales
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2K views14 pages

ART Criticism: Four Principal Approaches

The document outlines four principal approaches to art criticism: mimetic (based on subject matter), expressive (based on the artist), pragmatic (based on the audience), and aesthetic or formal (based on form). It discusses each approach in detail, explaining their origins and how critics have used them to analyze and appreciate artworks. The mimetic approach judges art based on the beauty and significance of its subject matter, while the expressive approach focuses on how the artist expresses themselves through their work. The pragmatic approach evaluates art based on its usefulness to audiences, and the formal/aesthetic approach believes a work's artistic merit comes from its form rather than its content or popularity.

Uploaded by

Quenard Medillo Gales
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ART

CRITICISM:
Four Principal
Approaches
These four relationships of a work of art are the bases
for the four principal approaches to art criticism and
appreciation. These four approaches are:

1. mimetic (based on the subject matter)


2. expressive (based on the artist)
3. pragmatic (based on the audience)
4. aesthetic or formal (based on the form)
Subject Matter

•With respect to subject matter, art is an imitation,


depiction or representation of some aspect of nature
or life. That which is imitated, depicted, or
represented in art is its subject matter.
•Anything in the universe may serve as the subject of
art
According to subject matter, art may be classified
into two types:
1. Representational or Objective Art portrays or depicts something
other than its own form. Examples are Venus de Milo, Da Vinci’s
Monalisa, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan
Lake. Literature is principally representational.
2. Non-representational or Non-objective Art represents nothing
except its own form. Examples: the Pyramids of Egypt, Mondrian’s
non-figurative paintings, the symphonies of Mozart. Among the major
arts, architecture is most nearly always non-objective. In non-objective
art, subject matter and form are one: the form is the subject.
Subject Matter
The concept of art as imitation may be traced back to two
Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle.
• Plato believes that art is far removed from reality which exists in
the realm of Ideals or Universals, of which our world is but an
imperfect imitation, and art is, in turn, only an imitation of our
world.
• Aristotle rejected the belief in the realm of Ideals. He taught that
reality exists right in our own world, around us and within us as
perceived by our senses. Art is “a mirror of reality” and therefore
brings us in contact with it.
Subject Matter
The approach to art criticism through the subject matter is called
mimetic (derived from the Greek word mimesis, meaning imitation.)
The mimetic approach stresses the importance of subject matter or
content in art. According to this approach, the merit of a work of art
lies in its subject; the beauty of the subject and its significance are the
basis for aesthetic judgment.
This approach has been discredited by modern critics who assert that
the aesthetic quality of a work of art depends not so much on what is
depicted (the subject) as on how it is depicted (the form).
The Artist, Writer, or Creator

From the point of view of the artist (poet, essayist, fiction


writer, dramatist, composer, painter, sculptor or architect),
art is a means of expression, a medium for communicating
an idea, an emotion or some other human experience, an
impression of life, a vision of beauty. And because the artist
puts something of himself into his art, it becomes an
extension of himself, an objectification of some aspect of
his personality.
The Artist, Writer, or Creator
Moreover, in passing judgment on the aesthetic merit of an
artwork, we must not be influenced by our personal regard
for its creator or his reputation. Hence, we should appreciate
a symphony by Mozart, not because this composer is one of
the most delightful and admirable personalities in the world
of music, but because that symphony has certain aesthetic
qualities which make it worthy of appreciation for its own
sake, regardless of who composed it or what sort of man he
was.
Audience or Readers

From the viewpoint of the audience (readers in the


case of literature, viewers in the case of the visual arts,
and listeners in the case of music), art is experience; for
what is a poem unless one can read it; what is a
painting unless one can see it, and what is a sonata
unless one can hear it? Art always has an audience, even
if this audience is none other than the artist himself.
Audience or Readers

The approach to art criticism, which emphasizes the


value and importance of art to its audience, is known
as the pragmatic approach.
Pragmatic critics attach little importance to the
aesthetic value and instead judge art according to
how useful it is to the audience.
Audience or Readers
Modern critics assert that the aesthetic judgment of the masses is
far from reliable, the masses being for the most part uneducated,
ignorant; that the greatness of a work of art does not depend on,
and cannot be measured by, its popularity with the people; that a
gaudy painting of Mayon Volcano from a shop on Mabini Street is
not necessarily greater than an abstraction by Picasso simply
because it is understood and appreciated by a greater number of
people, or that My Way by Frank Sinatra is superior to Mozart’s
Symphony No. 40 for the same reason.
Form
With respect to form (the manner of imitation, how the subject
matter is handled and presented), art is a composition, a whole
consisting of various parts or elements; the selection, organization,
and integration of these elements according to certain formal
principles and employing certain techniques constitute that which
we call the form of art.
Form
Modern critics, advocating the formal and aesthetic approach to
art criticism, stress the importance of form in a work or art. They
uphold the motto, “Art for art’s sake,” which is attributed to the
English playwright, Oscar Wilde. This view seeks to liberate art
from the chains of morality, religion, political propaganda, social,
reform, etc., and sets up art as something worthy of appreciation
for its own sake.
Form
Every work of art involves an element of choice; certain
possibilities have been employed; others have been rejected. It is
essential to consider alternatives to see what these choices are and
why they occur. One may begin by considering the physical
properties–size, shape and medium–of the work of art. How do
these affect its immediate personality as an object? One can then
explore the more complex qualities of the work. For the sake of
convenience, try to isolate factors, but keep in mind that they have
an organic or functional relation to other aspects and to the whole.

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