Vincenzo Fiore Marrese

Key questions

Meta-Modern Inquiry into Modernist Foundations

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Experts and Informal Conversations on Formalism in the Arts

1. Convergent Investigation

Formalism is an expert term.

A diagram illustrating the concept of convergent investigation in the field of art. The diagram shows how Formalism leads to Convergent Investigation, which branches into Art Criticism, Neuroaesthetics, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Art, and Art History. These fields are further connected through Criticism, Neurosciences, Philosophy, and History.

Here, I refer to this term in art-related disciplines like Criticism, specifically Art Criticism; Philosophy, specifically Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art; History, specifically Art History; Neurosciences, specifically Neuroaesthetic. I aim to investigate this term following the research of the experts in these disciplines.

Indeed, I believe it is a relevant investigation to address contemporary art issues for four reasons:

  1. It is a topic of debate.
  2. It is historically relevant.
  3. It is related to the near-present expert's research on art.
  4. It is related to the current informal conversations about art.
2. Starting Definition of Formalism

I start by comparing a broad definition with a philosophical frame. The first came from a glossary entry called "Formalism", and the second from an essay called "Aesthetic Formalism." The glossary is "Art Terms", curated by the Tate[note 1]. The essay is by Christopher Dowling[note 2].

According to the glossary:

«Formalism describes the critical position that the most important aspect of a work of art is its form – the way it is made and its purely visual aspects – rather than its narrative content or its relationship to the visible world.»[note 3]

According to Dowling's essay:

«Formalism in aesthetics has traditionally been taken to refer to the view in the philosophy of art that the properties in virtue of which an artwork is an artwork—and in virtue of which its value is determined—are formal in the sense of being accessible by direct sensation (typically sight or hearing) alone.»[note 4]

As we can see, formalism appears as a "position"[note 5] or as a "view"[note 6]. What is the topic of this position or view? They both put the focus on the "artwork"[note 7].

However, more in detail, the topic is an "aspect"[note 8] or "properties"[note 9] of the artwork. Even more, it is a special kind, "the most important"[note 10], according to the glossary, or, the the many "in virtue of which an artwork is an artwork"[note 11], according to Dowling's essay.

A special kind of property

So, according to the previous states[note 12], one can say the following.

  • We have a thing (an artwork), this thing has features (aspects, properties).
  • There are one or more special features that make this thing exactly this thing is and not another (e.g. a chair).
  • Then, we have an idea (formalism) about what this or these features should be.

In the field of philosophy, these aspects or properties are often called essential properties:

«The distinction between essential versus accidental properties has been characterized in various ways, but it is often understood in modal terms: an essential property of an object is a property that it must have, while an accidental property of an object is one that it happens to have but that it could lack.»[note 13]

Which property

Then, the glossary and Dowling's essay state that these aspects or properties are "its purely visual aspects"[note 14] and "formal in the sense of being accessible by direct sensation (...) alone"[note 15].

In the field of philosophy, these ideas are associated with a concept related to the emergence of the field of aesthetics called immediacy:

«The concept of the aesthetic descends from the concept of taste. (...) the eighteenth-century theory of taste emerged, in part, as a corrective to the rise of rationalism, particularly as applied to beauty (...) Against rationalism about beauty, the eighteenth-century theory of taste held the judgment of beauty to be immediate»[note 16]

On the opposite, "rationalism about beauty" states:

«that judgments of beauty are judgments of reason, i.e., that we judge things to be beautiful by reasoning it out, where reasoning it out typically involves inferring from principles or applying concepts»[note 17]

It is worth noting that here, the focus is more on judgment. Earlier, we were talking more about the nature of a thing. However, the idea of immediacy, within the framework of formalism, seems to be related to both.

Immediate and Essential

Summing up, we can start to identify two pillars from the philosophical field surrounding Formalism: the immediate and the essential.

Rectangle divided vertically into two equal sections. Top section labeled The Immediate. Bottom section labeled The Essential.

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Notes
  1. Tate. "Formalism." Art Terms, glossary. Accessed July 31, 2024. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/formalism back to the text
  2. Dowling, Christopher. "Aesthetic Formalism." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP). Accessed July 31, 2024. https://iep.utm.edu/aesthetic-formalism/ back to the text
  3. Tate. "Formalism." back to the text
  4. Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  5. Tate. "Formalism." back to the text
  6. Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  7. Tate. "Formalism."; Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  8. Tate. "Formalism." back to the text
  9. Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  10. Tate. "Formalism." back to the text
  11. Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  12. Tate. "Formalism."; Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  13. Robertson Ishii, Teresa and Philip Atkins, "Essential vs. Accidental Properties", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/essential-accidental/. Accessed July 31, 2024. back to the text
  14. Tate. "Formalism."; Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  15. Dowling, "Aesthetic Formalism." back to the text
  16. Shelley, James, "The Concept of the Aesthetic", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/aesthetic-concept/. Accessed July 31, 2024.back to the text
  17. Ibidem. back to the text
  18. Ibidem. back to the text
  19. Ibidem. back to the text