Aesthetic form in art

Abstract

There is a popular but now philosophically discredited idea that the creation of works of art necessarily involves the expression of emotion by the artist, and that this process results in the work of art being expressive of those same emotions. This view, held by many writers, including Tolstoy and Collingwood is known as the expression theory of art. I argue, that with certain ammendments, in particular the restriction of the emotions in question to aesthetic emotions, this expression theory of art is viable. The first section of the thesis discusses the nature of emotions and the aesthetic attitude with the aim of showing that it is appropriate to think of our aesthetic responses as constituting a distinctive category of emotions. In the second section I introduce the views of Kandinsky who writes as an expression theorist, but focuses his discussion of expression in art on the purely aesthetic feelings experienced in response to formal qualities - in particular to colour. His writings are the inspiration for the thesis since I interpret him as anticipating the type of view that I am putting forward. A full statement of my position is found in the third section. I also defend my thesis against the traditional objections to the expression theory and since part of my view is that formal elements have inherent aesthetic force ie. have meaning for us in terms of aesthetic emotions, I also discuss my position with respect to Clive Bell's theory and some objections to formalism in general.