Judging and Evaluating Art

Liking versus Evaluating

• Liking is the domain of the casual or serious consumer of visual art

• Evaluating is the domain of art critics, art historians, scientists

• Some consider art appreciation to be like learning a language

• Gets back to the question of “What is Art?”• Furthermore, “What is Good Art?”• Is art totally subjective, or is there a general

consensus on what is good art or bad art?• Liking for an artwork may be orthogonal to

knowing that’s it’s good or bad art

What can you Appreciate?

• Artistic period• The School of Art• Historical/cultural context• Subject of the painting• Technical aspects of creating the art• Allegorical value• Symbolism• Political value

Three Approaches to Judging Art

Is Good Art Subjective?

• If you like it, it’s good art?

• Implies that an objective evaluation of art is invalid

Or is Good Art Objective?

• Rely on expert opinion and art criticism?• Assume there are objective ways to

differentiate good art from bad art?

Is Good Art Synonymous with Technical Skill?

• Any work of art that has taken much time, precision, meticulous attention, or painstaking detail is good art?

Art Appreciation and Taste

• Kant argued that a genuine good taste exists and that it is universal

• Kant said that beauty is an aesthetic judgment based on personal feeling

• Others argue that good taste is socially and culturally determined

• Can good taste be cultivated?• Preference and judgment can be two different

things

Factors Influencing Aesthetic Appreciation

• Social context• Cultural context• Lived experience• Education• Affective quality• Conceptual content• Information content and load

Social Context

• Artistic excellence is a shared standard applied by social actors

• The meaning of a work of art is learned, not discovered

• We learn what people consider to be of value

Cultural Context

• Expectations from a culture may bias judgments of art

• However, there is more agreement across cultures in the value of art pieces than what is explainable by cultural biases alone

Lived Experience

• The accumulated life experience and wisdom of the viewer

• Encompasses both the intensity of the moment and the journey of a lifetime

• Degree to which an art work is matched to the viewer’s experience of the world

Education

• Aesthetic reasoning begins with stimulation and education of senses in early childhood

• Aesthetic education programs cause increases in aesthetic awareness

• “To study the history and dynamics of art is to immerse ourselves in revelations of human life and perception, which exist nowhere else.” – Xavier John Seubert

Affective Quality

• Potential for an art work to change our emotional state

• Affective Dimensions– Valence

(Pleasant/Unpleasant)– Arousal (Calm/Tense)

Conceptual Content

• How easy or difficult it is to ascertain the meaning of an art work

Information Content and Load

• Sensory/Cognitive demand on the viewer

Judging an Art Work is a Complex Equation

• Some art that is highly valued is not pleasant, e.g. Dali

• Some art that is soothing is not valued much, e.g., mall muzak

• Some art that creates sentiment is superficial, e.g. photos of kittens

Formal Evaluation of Art (Art Criticism)

• Analysis and evaluation of works of art

• Attempting to understand a work of art from a theoretical perspective

• Establishing its significance in the history of art

Four Steps in Art Criticism

• Description• Analysis• Interpretation• Judgment

Description

• Historical information• Defining objects in the

painting• Noting colors, shapes,

lines, textures, day/night/illumination

• First impression of overall mood

Analysis

• Mentally separate the parts or elements

• How did the artist use colors, shapes, lines, texture to create a certain effect?

• What are the most significant artistic techniques used?

• How are the elements organized?

Interpretation

• Decoding the meaning of the work; What is the artist trying to say?

• What does it mean to you?• What feelings are evoked?• Are any elements of the

work symbolic, and if so, what does that mean?

• Why did the artist create this work?

Judgment

• The critic’s own personal evaluation of the worth of the work

• What value does the work have? (technical proficiency, beauty, conveys an important social message, reaffirms a religious belief, etc.)

• Does the work lack value? Is the subject unappealing, unimaginative, or offensive?

• How does the work fit into the history of art?

Example: Hopper’s “Nighthawks”

Example: Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait”

Example: Miro “Dawn Perfumed by a Shower of Gold”

Conclusions

• I don’t care if it’s good, I know what I like?• Many believe that good taste is valuable,

should be respected, and can be cultivated• There does seem to be a consensus about what

is good art and bad art• As in science, there is always argument about

degrees of certainty in assertions about the value and quality of art