Julia Morris Mrs. Smith IB Theory of Knowledge II 23 August 2011 Art pgs.

. 329-338 1) Introduction a) i) Three main questions: What is art?

ii) Are aesthetic judgments objective or subjective? iii) How do the arts contribute to our knowledge of the world? iv) What are the similarities and differences between the arts and the sciences? 2) What is art? a) i) Three possible criteria: The intentions of the artist

ii) The quality of the work iii) The response of spectators b) Intentions of the Artist i) Aesthetics a branch of philosophy which studies beauty and the arts (1) Its made by someone with the intention of evoking an aesthetic response in the audience (according to the intention criterion) (2) Its simply made with the intention of pleasing or provoking people (3) Not if its made with a practical end in mind iii) Works of art differ from natural objects in that they are made with an intention iv) Criticism of the Intention Criterion (1) Taking something completely ordinary (like someones desk or bed) and calling it art PHony ART or phart for short this is art that is judged solely on the intentions of the artist with no regard to quality v) Quality of the Work (1) The second criterion for distinguishing art and non-art is the intrinsic quality of the work (the idea of skill); not something that Joe Blow can make. (2) A great work of art is the marriage of form and content (a) Content what it depicts (b) Form the way it is put together (such things as unity, order, rhythm, balance, proportion, harmony, and symmetry are relevant to form) (3) Criticisms of the Quality Criterion ii) Something is a work of art if

Julia Morris Mrs. Smith IB Theory of Knowledge II 23 August 2011 (a) Kitsch knock something off any form of clichd art (b) Forgeries fake copies of the art of other original artists (i) Han Van Meegeren Dutch forger painted very convincing, fake Vermeers (c) Quality and skill seem to be neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for something to be a work of art. vi) Response of Spectators (1) The third criterion for distinguishing between art and non-art is the response of spectators. (2) Who does an artist appeal to? vii) Other Ideas about the Nature of Art (1) Art is what is found in an art gallery or treated by experts as a work of art (2) Is Everything Art? (a) Marcel Duchamp made readymades ordinary objects renamed and put into an art gallery (b) Everything can be looked at from an aesthetic point of view. (3) Inexhaustibility (a) Perhaps the distinguishing feature of a great work of art is that it is inexhaustible in the sense that every time you come back to it you discover new things in it. (b) Great works of art stand the test of time and speak across generations and cultures. (c) It could be argued that winnowing effects of time act as a kind of ideal spectator helping us to distinguish enduring art from art which is merely fashionable.