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Transcript

Formalism V.S Intentionalism

Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch

Q1

1.How would you define artistic interpretation? Or the process of deriving meaning from a work of art?

• "I don’t know if you can define viewer response…but it’s a critical turn in the sense of…as opposed to being interested in the artist or the creative process [the scholar] is more interested in the ways in which the viewer, any viewer, approaches the work and takes meaning from it."

Q2

Does the form of a piece matter?

  • "The form of the piece is critical to its content, it cannot separate from the visual aspects, otherwise one would be dealing with a different type of text. It wouldn’t be a visual text, it would be a sound text or a piece of literature or a production. Within art, we generally think of them as these stable objects, even though we know that there is no stability within the art world."

Q3

Which is more important, form or intention of the artist?

  • "Form...intention of the artist is often hearsay by posturing scholars". "Very rarely is there a direct statement of intent or commission record, unless it’s a very specified area of art history."

Q4

4.Is meaning singular or multiple? Is there more than one conceivable or derivable meaning?

More than one:

  • “the audience response is key, and the amount of experience brought to the piece by the individual narrative effects the personal meaning of the piece. Contingent on the mental storage of the individual”
  • “Discipline of iconography was developed for: how do people recognize subjects, recognize patterns within images”
  • “but at the end of the day, it’s a highly personalized experience that is hard to predict"
  • "But there are ways to categorize that response. For instance depending on the basic elements of design; the way the line is drawn conveys a certain mood or an attitude. Colors do bear universal emotional quality."
  • "Ultimately there’s a focus on every interpretation is valid", and self-direction or command with the space.

Q5

Does the artist have a responsibility to work within the literacy of the audience (through iconography, cultural database, ect)?

  • “It depends on what type of artist you’re talking about… but more often than not, today, the artist is coming from a very singular, personal, highly individual space and may or may not even care for what the audience wants or even responds to”

  • “interesting work does engage with the cultural language…while of course there will be repetition…there’s a certain responsibility in 2011 for artists to be informed about what came before them.

  • “At the same time, there are no rules to artistic production”

Q6

If an object has no historical context, does it become meaningless?

"No, I don’t think so. The artwork can be approached as a thing, with its own inherent qualities. So it has the inherent qualities of beautifulness or ugliness, or depending on the subject, conveys a mood. "

Q7

Do you think that formal qualities are intrinsically tied with content?

"I do. And I think that’s the basis of analysis in art history."

  • “Training of the eye” that occurs when studying art over a period of time: recognition between period styles, variations in style based on geography, specific artist’s brushwork, common motifs.

  • “ [repeated] Formal qualities take on real significant symbolic weight when understood within a particular community’s values in time”

Q8

Does the intention of the artist have any bearing on the derivable meaning of the work?

  • If we’re thinking of contemporary artists... that a good contemporary artist needs to have form wedded with content. And, if you have a message that you’re trying to convey, the form needs to also convey that message. Form and content have to go hand in hand. But, it’s not really that important for us to understand Michelangelo’s intentions while painting the Sistine ceiling. It’s such a complex object…that at the end of the day Michelangelo was the agent that made that happen, but we can’t claim to ever know what Michelangelo wanted.”

  • The piece stands alone, independent from what Michelangelo wanted.

Q9

Which takes higher precedence if there is a contradiction: an artist’s statement of intention with the work, or the formal analysis of the piece?

"Well I think you can have both. I think that the multiplicity of responses is always going to happen."

  • Ph.D., University of Chicago, Italian Renaissance Art History, 2005
  • associate professor of art history
  • ritual theory and practice
  • modes of viewership
  • museum work in the National Gallery, Washington D.C.
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