Painting & Philosophy: Ortega’s Garden-Window Theory Of Art
Painting & Philosophy: Ortega’s Garden-Window Theory Of Art
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Please read and analysis the readings carefully!(Especially Ortega’s argument.)
INTRODUCTION
Consider Ortega’s garden-window theory of art (as explained in the section of The Dehumanization of Art titled Artistic Art). There are two ways to interpret his
use of this idea. On the one hand, we can understand him as claiming that while in older art the two aspects of visual works of art went hand in hand, modern art
effects a separation. In other words, he could be saying that modern art is different from older art in that the emotional and aesthetic aspects can no longer be enjoyed together (or that the emotional aspect is altogether missing).
However, elsewhere in his essay (for instance on 25) he seems to be saying that art always had this double aspect, and hence that most people in the past only had the illusion of properly engaging with art: they were really fooling themselves or were misled somehow.
PROMPT I.
Modernism and the Garden-window Theory of art
Do two things:
A, take a position on this issue (i.e. decide which alternative reflects Ortega’s view better) and argue for it conclusively demonstrating familiarity with and profound understanding of Ortega’s argument as a whole. (You may, but need not invoke Alberti, Diderot or Berenson as providing alternative ideas for
understanding the relationship between emotional and aesthetic aspects of works of older art, for instance by invoking their idea that art is both for the educated and the uneducated).
B. Evaluate what you have now established as Ortega’s view by reference to one of the three following modernist works
Georges Seurat: A Sunday Afternoon on the Ile Grande Jatte (1884-86) https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer_m/z.html
Pablo Picasso: Les demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/pablo-picasso-les-demoiselles-davignon-paris-june-july-1907
Claude Monet: Water Lilies (c. 1920, MoMA, New York) https://www.wga.hu/html_m/m/monet/08/7liliy08.html
“Evaluation” means critical evaluation: you should consider whether your reading of the work of art in question confirms or questions your reading of Ortega’s general theory. (You are welcome to choose an alternative Modernist work, but you need to confirm it with me! Also, you may use further works from Monet’s Water Lilies series (painted in his own garden in Giverny in the twenties), and you are welcome to refer to this video if you notice something analytically relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJE4QUNgaeg )
Make sure that the two parts of your essay are united by a single thread and by a clear focus on a problem, issue, or question – this is an important part of the task!