According to Dewey, something that starts out as natural is transformed into art only when it is willfully manipulated. That only then can what was originally spontaneous acts enrich life and the community. Like a winepress, the pressure applied by natural impulses and experiences produces a work of art. Emotion can not stand alone but must concern some fact or idea. To his thinking, there are no real emotions, such as fear, hate, or love. They exist solely in relation to another thing. Without this harnessed emotion, an object may exhibit craftsmanship, but it is not art.
If emotions are too intense, a person is overwhelmed and lacks the ability to express it. On the other
Edvard Munch The Scream, 1893
National Gallery, Oslo
Munch was well acquainted with heartbreak, his mother, older sister and father all died while he was young. |
Dewey describes how, when an artist imagines where or places paint on a canvas, they are caught up in this act of ordering emotions and experiences. He maintains that what separates artists from most people is this ability to distill feelings and ideas rather than the mere technical skills of drawing, painting, or sculpting.
Dewey maintains that a culture in which art serves merely as some sort of escape from reality or decoration for everyday living is imperfect. To him, in an ideal society, art is an integral part of day-to-day life.
Sounds like Van Gogh discovered flow well before Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi ("one works without knowing that one works" etc.)...
ReplyDeleteThe distinguishing "ability to distill feelings and ideas" goes for poets and literary writers too, right?
Dewey would say "art is an integral part of day-to-day life" whether we realize it or not, I think. But, better to realize it if we want to "manage" it. Art is that cultural manifestation of nature that reflects and directs future experiences. That's the difference, isn't it, between screaming and The Scream?
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