Chris,
The basis of aesthetics in art is our only human alternative to it's
creation,
and our subjective ever changing personal views.
mando
On Jul 16, 2009, at 6:47 AM, Chris Miller wrote:
abstraction, Worringer said, was as natural to human expression as
imitation, and both existed side by side, as in E. art. His
comments had
very little to do with "abstract art" and everything to do with
"abstraction".
Try to hold that thought long enough to at least get the gist of it.
WC
Not so, William.
To begin with, Worringer made the strong assertion that imitative
expressions, like the ancient Egyptian "Scribe" have nothing to do
with
aesthetics and should not be considered as art.
Here's a very famous statue to which I suppose he was referring:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seated_Scribe
It's hardly a life-cast, is it?
Wouldn't you say it was the result of a process of "abstraction"?
It's way
too "abstract" for the wax-museum sculptors of today, and if you
play the
explanatory video on the Louvre's website, you will be shown how
it's overall
shape approximates a triangle.
Yet, this is the example that Worringer gave as work that was
"quite separate
from the artistic impulse in the true sense"
Then, consider his follow text:
"We would misinterpret the psychological conditions of the origin
of this
abstract art form if we were to say that the yearning for
regularity made
men consciously grasp at geometric regularity, for this would
presuppose an
intellectual preoccupation with geometrical form, would make it
appear a
product of deliberation and calculation. We are
much more justified in assuming that here we have a purely instinctive
creation, that the tendency to abstraction has created this form with
elementary necessity without the intervention of the intellect.
Just because
the intellect had not distubed the instinct, the innate disposition
toward
regularity could find abstract expression..These abstract regular
forms are
thus the only and the highest forms in which man can rest in face
of the
immense confusion of the cosmos"
Got it?
"abstraction" is not the process of "abstracting from" something
that has been
observed, but it is an "innate disposition toward regularity",
especially
satisfied by geometrical form.
Like the pyramid was for the ancient Egyptians (and I've yet to
read of any
other examples that Worringer has offered from that period -
although I'll get
his entire book to look for them. I find him entertaining, even if
he has
been canonized by the modern art world)
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