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Full Idea
The avant-garde art of the twentieth century played a significant role in defeating definitions that had prevailed in earlier times, such as ones maintaining that art is representation, expression or significant form
Gist of Idea
Defining art as representation or expression or form were all undermined by the avant-garde
Source
Stephen Davies (The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed) [2016], 2.2)
Book Ref
Davies,Stephen: 'The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed)' [Wiley Blackwell 2016], p.27
A Reaction
I really think the first rule of philosophical aesthetics is 'ignore Marcel Duchamp'. We wouldn't give up our idea of philosophy if someone managed to publish a long string of expletives in a philosophy journal. Would we??
| 23927 | Aestheticism invites artist to create beauty, but with no indication of how to do it [Bell,C] |
| 23932 | Art is the expression of an emotion for ultimate reality [Bell,C] |
| 23887 | Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others [Weil] |
| 20440 | Art is a referential activity, hence indefinable, but it has a set of symptoms [Goodman] |
| 22709 | We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that [Murdoch] |
| 20348 | A criterion of identity for works of art would be easier than a definition [Wollheim] |
| 20326 | Early 20th cent attempts at defining art focused on significant form, intuition, expression, unity [Lamarque/Olson] |
| 20384 | The idea that art forms are linked into a single concept began in the 1740s [Davies,S] |
| 20390 | Defining art as representation or expression or form were all undermined by the avant-garde [Davies,S] |
| 20392 | 'Aesthetic functionalism' says art is what is intended to create aesthetic experiences [Davies,S] |