more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 20422

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 4. Art as Expression ]

Full Idea

It is very difficult to perceive the frontier between expression and communication in actual fact, for the two processes usually alternate rapidly and are almost intermingled.

Gist of Idea

The experience of expression and communication are intermingled in art

Source

Benedetto Croce (The Essence of Aesthetic [1912]), quoted by Gary Kemp - Croce and Collingwood

Book Ref

'Key Thinkers in Aesthetics', ed/tr. Giovannelli,Alessandro [Continuum 2012], p.104


A Reaction

[text unsure] I think he is getting at seeing the painting (or whatever) as a physical object, and seeing it as the experience which results from the object. The alternation of the objective and subjective views. Reminds me of Thomas Nagel.


The 19 ideas with the same theme [personal expression is the essence of art]:

Art aims only at beauty, of form, of idea, and (above all) of expression [Winckelmann, by Tolstoy]
Objects can be beautiful which express nothing at all, such as the rainbow [Herbart, by Tolstoy]
The highest feelings of mankind can only be transmitted by art [Tolstoy]
Art is when one man uses external signs to hand on his feelings to another man [Tolstoy]
True works of art transmit completely new feelings [Tolstoy]
Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be [Nietzsche]
The experience of expression and communication are intermingled in art [Croce]
The only expression art could have is the emotion resulting from pure form [Bell,C]
The emotion expressed is non-conscious, but feels oppressive until expression relieves it [Collingwood]
It is claimed that the expressive properties of artworks are non-physical [Wollheim]
Some say art must have verbalisable expression, and others say the opposite! [Wollheim]
Croce says art makes inarticulate intuitions conscious; rival views say the audience is the main concern [Scruton]
Romantics say music expresses ideas, or the Will, or intuitions, or feelings [Scruton]
Reference without predication is the characteristic of expression [Scruton]
Expression can be either necessary for art, or sufficient for art (or even both) [Kemp]
We don't already know what to express, and then seek means of expressing it [Kemp]
The horror expressed in some works of art could equallly be expressed by other means [Kemp]
Music may be expressive by being 'associated' with other emotional words or events [Davies,S]
It seems unlikely that sad music expresses a composer's sadness; it takes ages to write [Davies,S]