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TOK REFERENCING: over the years there has been an increase or extension on what can be defined as art. By the increasing perspectives, standpoints and contextual understanding on a piece of art, new meaning arises within the art. However, is this what the artist had truly intended for to happen? Or is there a specification the increase in perspectives have diluted? This aspect has been explored in the following blog page.
Modern day art is abstract and deviates from the concrete ideology. Abstract art is ambiguous and cannot be looked in one way. I was once browsing through the net when I came across a painting that looked very interesting, mainly because it was a splatter of paint. I thought that the painting was very emotive for the red hues it used and thus led me to believe that the painting was the artists way of relieving stress and expressing anger. However, upon research I came to find out that the painting was actually that of an 10 yr olds, and that she just loved mixing paints of same shades on a canvas. This led me to my knowledge question: Can a work of art have meaning of which the artist themselves is unaware ?
To understand this, we must build a relatively strong base understanding before we answer this question. A question that arises very often and which is very relevant in our case, asks whether ‘the artist’s or author’s intention is pertinent to how the work is interpreted?’
This again diverges into two paths, one being ‘intentionalism’ and the other being ‘anti-intentionalism’.
Inentionalism states that a viewer of a work of art should concern themselves with the intention behind which the work of art was produced. This is especially due to the fact that the work of art was influenced by this specific intention. Viewing the specimen in this specific perspective will lead to the understanding of the meaning behind the art. The art viewed in any other point of view is rendered meaningless. A convenient way to understand this point of view would be by viewing the sculpture called Maman created by artist Louise Bourgeois.
The huge spider like sculpture viewed as such can be interpreted as something scary and an ominous threat. In my perspective the spider is a reminder that we are prey to even the smallest things in our life if we are ignorant. The artist however has a different perspective altogether. Her intention is to bring out the motherly qualities of a spider which is so much alike her own deceased mother. The sculpture symbolizes the protective nature of a mother of her children (symbolized by the eggs in the sculpture) and the complex relationship between a mother and her children.
Fig 1: Maman (sculpture of a spider)
The meaning has drastically changed between mine and the artist’s perspective. A different perspective from the true intentions of the artist indeed deviates from the true meaning of the art itself. So it is possible in one side of the argument to say that any other perspective other than the artist’s is meaningless for it doesn’t coincide with the meaning of the art.
On the other hand however, we must also consider that art is extremely ambiguous in nature like explored in the introduction, and it would be absurd if we didn’t consider the other perspectives as well. Anti – intentionalism states that the work of art’s meaning entirely relies upon the literary and linguistic features pertaining to it. The artist’s true intentions are neither required nor satisfactory to understand and construct the meaning of the art form. This in result concludes that the work of art relishes in autonomy and meaning is constructed on the basis of how the viewer views it. This is extremely relevant in cases where an ancient painting is preserved and where the original artist is long deceased. Like in the case of the oldest cave painting found in Indonesia. We don’t know the true intention behind the art work as the artist is no more and there is no documentation of the art work. So we can only assume or make assumptions through different perspectives of the meaning, all which must be considered and cannot be rejected as we have no relevant proof to contradict the different perspectives.
I would like to conclude by saying that it is definitely possible for the work of art to have meaning of which the artist doesn’t know, but it isn’t necessary that it is the true meaning behind the art specimen.
Sources:
1. https://iep.utm.edu/artinter/
4. https://publicdelivery.org/louise-bourgeois-spider-maman/
5. https://blog.artsper.com/en/get-inspired/25-works-of-contemporary-art-you-need-to-see/
6. Fig 1: Maman (sculpture of a spider): https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/louise-bourgeois-spiders/index.html
cover image source: https://digitaldefynd.com/best-abstract-courses/
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