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The Arts: Being through MeaningAuthor(s): George P. SteinSource: The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Oct., 1971), pp. 99-113Published by: University of Illinois PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3331623Accessed: 28-11-2015 06:50 UTC
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The
Arts:
Being
through Meaning
GEORGE
P. STEIN
I
A
pianist
was once
asked about the
meaning
of
a
composition
he
had
just
played.
He
replied
by playing
it. His
assumption
was
that
the mean-
ing
of a work of
art
can be
rendered
only
through
itself
and not
by
a
verbal
translation.
This assumption is of course implicitly questioned by anyone who
says anything
about
what
a
work of art
means. And
the
fact is
that
philosophers,
critics,
educators
and those
being
educated
do often
ask
and
attempt
to
answer
the
question:
"What
does this
poem
(or
painting,
or
symphony)
mean?"
If
these
questions
and the answers
are
themselves
to
be considered
meaningful,
some
theory
of
meaning
in the
arts
would
have
to be
implicit
in
the
questions
and answers. Such
a
theory
will
have
of
course
some
effect
upon
the
sorts
of
questions
asked
and
upon
the
nature
of
the answers
given.
The
problem
of a
theory
of
meaning
in
the arts is simplyan interestingone to some. But to those involved in the
design
of
educational
curriculums from
kindergarten
through
college,
the
problem
should
be,
interesting
or
not,
a
major
one.
The
purpose
of
this
paper
is to reduce the
ambiguity
of the
question,
"What does this
work
of
art mean?"
to
the
point
where
it
may
assist
curriculum decisions
in
the
arts.
To
begin
with,
there are
a
couple
of
"nonassumptions"
o
be
made:
1.
There
is
no
assumption
as
to the
essential nature
of
"art" or "the
arts." Whatever
is
claimed
with
respect
to the
nature
of
meaning
in the
arts
requires
no adherence to
any
of the classical or
contemporary
defi-
nitions of art.
GEORGE
P.
STEIN
is
professor
of philosophy
and
chairman
of
the
department
of
philosophy
at
Bloomfield College,
New
Jersey.
His
most recent
publication
is
The
Ways
of
Meaning
in
the Arts
(1970).
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100 GEORGE .
STEIN
2.
There
is
no
assumption
as to whether or
not art
is definable at all.
It
is
assumed
that
people
recognize
or learn
to
recognize
that
certain
things
or events
are
works
of
art,
in some
way
similar to
the
way
we
recognize
or
learn to
recognize
that certain
things
are
bridges,
games,
horses,
disasters,
etc. It had
been,
before
Wittgenstein,
traditional to
assume
that
one
could not
reliably
make this sort of
recognition
unless
one
was
equipped
with
a "definition"
of art. But
it is now common
for
theorists
to believe that
works
of art are
recognized
as
such
by
virtue
of
the
strands
of
similarities
among
the
things
called works
of
art.
The
main claims of this paper will be that:
1. Works
of
art come to have
meaning
in
one or more of several
definable
ways.
2.
The
ways
in which
works
of art have
meaning,
once
defined,
enable
questions
and
answers
about "the
meaning
of
a
work
of
art"
to be
put
more
precisely.
3.
The
ways
in
which works
of art have
meaning
are
among
the
strands
of
similarities
enabling
us to
recognize
works
of art as
such;
and
thus
open up
the
various avenues
of
understanding
and
"appreciating"
we believe should be accessible to the educated person.
II
What makes a
thing
a
work
of art?
And
can
we answer this
question
without
the
help
of
a
definition
of art?
Certain
things,
through
the usual
processes
of
education,
come to
be
recognized
by
viewers as works
of art
simply
by
their
noting
that
this is
what
the
works
are called
by
others.
And
other
things
get
recognized
as
works of art in
virtue
of similarities
to
already recognized
works
of art.
One kind of
similarity
s the
similarity
n the
ways
worksof art come to
have
meaning
or
are
meaningful.
There are
of
course
other kinds
of
similaritieswhich
"stamp"things
as works
of
art,
but
here we are
inter-
ested
only
in
the
"meaning"
similarities.
This manner
of
recognition
has
the
ring
of
circularity
about it. But
consider how
we
recognize
and
value
games.
After
a
snowstorm,
one
child
says
to
another,
"Let's see how
many
times we
can
each
hit
that
tree with a
snowball,
three throws each."
The
game
is
recognized
quickly
and
is
usually
valued and attended
to for one
or more of a number
of
reasons:
it
is
competitive,
some skill is
involved,
some
chance
is
involved,
score
can
be
kept,
etc. In a
very
different
setting,
such as
a
stockbroker's
office,
a
man
who
buys
and sells his
securities,
keeps
his
score, etc.,
can
also be
said
to be
playing
a
game, although
there
is
no
competition
in
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THEARTS:BEINGTHROUGHMEANING 101
the
usual
sense, very
little
skill
according
to
some,
and
(unlike
in
the
snowball
game)
a
great
deal
of
money
can be "made."
The
game-
making
reason
in
this
case is
simply
the
score-keeping.
Analogously,
we often
recognize
or learn to
recognize
works
of
art
quickly.
Works of
art have
many
art-making
characteristics.
And some
of these
characteristicshave been selected
singly
or in combination
by
theorists
as
the
art-making
characteristics,
.e.,
the
definition or essence
of
art. But
having
bracketed out
the
problem
of
defining
art,
we
are
here
selecting
one
of
the
art-making
characteristics,
namely meaning,
for
analysis.
The
value of the
analysis,
in
addition
to
its intrinsic value as
analysis,
is the
clarification it can introduce into discussions about the
meaning
of
works
of
art.
And
incidentally,
but
importantly
for educa-
tion,
a work of
art,
once
stamped
as
a
work of art
by
virtue of
its
way
of
meaning,
is
open
to valuable
ways
of
attending
to it other
than
through
its
meaning.
What
are the
ways
in which
works of art
have or
convey meaning
or
become
meaningful?
A.
Relational
Meaning
I.
A.
Richards
said,
in
an
anticipation
of
what
philosophers
have
identified
as emotive
meaning,
"Many
arrangements
of words evoke
attitudes without
any
references
being required
en
route.
They
operate
like
musical
phrases."l
Clement
Greenberg
has written:
This
sort of
view has led to theories of art
(and
moral
behaviour)
as emotive
behaviour
and
as
the
conveyor
of "emotive
statements,"
theories which
have
been
at
times
widened
to include
effects
other
than
emotions,
e.g.,
images
and
thoughts.
This is
not to
say
that
earlier
theorists in the
history
of
aesthetics
have
not
recognized
the connection between art and
its
causes or
consequences,
but that from Richards on there begins a line of development in which these
causes or
consequences
became the
meaning
of art. Plato had
recognized
that
the
poet's
peculiar power
is
"enthusiasm" rather than "wisdom."
But after
Richards it became
easy
to
say
that
the
wisdom
of
the artist consists
in his
enthusiasm:
Picasso,
Braque,
Mondrian, Miro,
Kandinsky,
Brancusi,
even
Klee,
Matisse
and Cezanne derive
their chief
inspiration
from the
medium
they
work
in.
The
excitement of their art
seems to lie
most
of all in
its
pure preoccupation
with the invention
and
arrangement
of
spaces,
surfaces,
shapes,
colors,
etc.,
to
the exclusion of
whatever
is not
necessarily
implicated
in these
factors.2
Here emotions, feelings, excitements become the meaning of the work
1
I.
A.
Richards,
Principles
of
Literary
Criticism
(New
York:
Harcourt, Brace,
1934),
p.
267.
2"Avant-Garde
and Kitsch."
Partisan
Reader 1934-44
(New
York: Deal
Press,
1946),
p.
381.
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102
GEORGE . STEIN
of
art. No
meanings
are
"necessarily mplicated"
in
colors
and surfaces.
Yet
a
definite and
understood sense of
the term
meaning
in the arts
is
being
used. We
will call this sense of
the term: relational
meaning.
A
work of art
may
obviously
have
more
than
one
recognized
relational
meaning.
How do
we
know when a relational
meaning
is
being
asked
for?
One form in which this
kind
of
meaning
is
referred
to
is
in a
question
such
as: "What
is the
meaning
of art?" and
in its answer.
This
partic-
ular
question
is
unambiguous,
so that when Ananda
K.
Coomaraswamy
in
Introduction to Indian Art
said
that
"Art in
India"
and
"art" in
the modem world mean
[my emphasis]
wo
very
different
hings.
In
India
it
is
the statementof a racial
experience...
The
names
and
peculiarities
of individual
artistseven
if
we
could
recover
them would not
enlighten
us:
nothing
dependsupon
genius
or
requires
he
knowledge
f an
individual
psychology
or its
interpretation,3
it
is clear
that the
writer was
comparing
Indian art with
modern
art
with
respect
to
their differences
within
the
relationships
constituted
by
the
mutual influence
of
art and a
(social
and
individual)
psyche.
Similarly
when
Dewey
defined
art
as
organization
of
energies,
the
definition consisted
in
part
of the
relating
of works
of
art
to
"those
features
that make
any experience
worth
having
as an
experience."
This
of
course
was
not
Dewey's
account
of
meaning
in art
in the sense
in
which he
claimed art
expressesmeanings,
but
it was his
account of
what
is
sometimes called
the
meaning
of
art and
of
what
we are
here
terming
a
relational
meaning
of
art. In the
latter
sense
the work of
art does
not
tell us
about
organization
of
energies;
it makes no
meaningful
statement.
It
organizes
energies;
and
the statement
of
this fact is a statement
about
a relational
meaning.
Thus
in Wordsworth's"Prelude,"
the lines
...
the
wind and
sleety
rain,
And all
the
business
f
the
elements,
The
singlesheep
and
the
one blasted
ree,
And the
bleak
music
romthat
old stonewall
build a
sense of desolation in the
reader
but
do
not
discuss the
"build-
ing"
of
the mood.
Dewey
however
did
discuss the
building
and his
statement
about
it
was a statement of
a
relational
meaning
of the
"Prelude."
Another instance of "relationalmeaning" is implicit in such "purist"
theorists as
Hanslick,
Bell,
and
de
Gourmont. When the
particular
arts
in
which
they
were
mainly
interested have
no
cognitive
content it is
'A. K.
Coomaraswamy,
ntroduction
o Indian
Art
(Madras:Theosophical,
1923), p.
v.
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THE
ARTS: BEING
THROUGH MEANING 103
because the
aesthetic
relevance
of
what
we
are
terming
relational mean-
ing
is denied
by
them.
Works
of
art
may
have
causes
or
consequences
but these
theorists held that
such causes or
consequences
are
irrelevant
to
the work
of art as work of
art.
Hanslick,
for
example,
was
concerned
with
destroying
the notion of
emotive
meaning
(before
the latter
became
the
philosophical
concept
used
by
Ogden,
Richards,
Ayer,
Stevenson
and
others).
To define the
relationships
obtaining
between
a
given piece
of music
and its
causal or
consequential
emotions,
Hanslick
thought,
was
to
illuminate
no
part
of
that
work
of
music.4
In
painting, Bell, although
he
used the
phrase
"esthetic
emotion,"
considered
that
emotion to
be
"unrelated
to the
significance
of
life"5
or to
the
emotions
of life
resulting
from
such
paint-
ing.
And
in
literature
where
it is more
difficult to hold
such an extreme
view
(since
the basic
materials of literature
are
words),
Remy
de
Gourmont,
theorizing
Mallarme's
desire "to
put
some
smoke
between
the
world and
himself,"
said
"Mallarme's
work is the
most marvelous
pretext
for
reveries
yet
offered men
weary
of
so
many
heavy
and
useless
affirmations."6
What they had in mind (and this is a usage which is sufficiently
subject
to definition
to sanction its
qualified
use)
when
they
denied
meaning
to
a work
of
art
was,
at
least in
part,
that
the
work
of
art had
in fact no
relevant
emotional,
image-al,
or intellectual
consequences
or
causes. This
denial
suggests
the
theoretical
possibility
that
if a work
of
art should
have
relevant
consequences,
then
those
consequences
would
be
its
(relational) meaning.
For
them the
work
of art
had either
a
musically intelligible
structure or a
sensuously
attractive sound
(which
were
considered
by
them
to be relevant to the
work as
art),
but
it had
no meaning since it was not relatable to an element outside of the work
of art.
Now the
concept
of
relational
meaning
assumes
no
definition
of the
work
of
art,
or
of
the
essentially
aesthetic
part
of
the
work of
art.
It
takes the
work of art as
it
occurs.
For
example,
in the Brahms
Double
Concerto
in A
Minor
it notes
certain
consequences,
such
as are
indicated
in comments
by Specht,
who
describes
it as
"one of
Brahms'
most
inapproachable
and
joyless compositions";7
and
in
Tovey's
characteri-
zation
of
the same work
as
having
"vast and
sweeping
humor"
which
Edward
Hanslick,
The
Beautiful
in Music
(New
York:
Novello,
Ewer
and
Co.,
1891).
Clive
Bell,
Art
(London:
Chatto and
Windus,
1914), p.
26.
6
Remy
de
Gourmont,
Decadence
(New
York:
Harcourt,
Brace, 1921), p.
155.
7Richard
Specht,
Johannes
Brahms
(London:
J.
M. Dent and
Sons,
1930),
p.
300.
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104 GEORGE P. STEIN
some think
"the
most
deadly
crime
possible
to a
great
work"8
of music.
Both of
these
may
be
verifiable
consequences empirically
correlated with
and so related to
the
work
of
music. Taken with all the
other
reactions
to
the
Double
Concerto,
in
their
aggregate,
these constitute
the
rela-
tional
meanings
of
the Double
Concerto. Which
relational
meanings
are
justified
can
only
be determined
by
the continuous
historical
criticism
that
is
being
applied
to the
Double Concerto.
That different
and even
contradictory
relational
meanings
coexist seems to
me a
matter
primarily
for
musical
history
and
sociological
determination,
rather
than aesthetic
determination,
since the
relational
meanings
do not
depend upon
aes-
thetic
analysis
of notes
which
do not
change
from
generation
to
gener-
ation
(except
in
performance
interpretations),
but on how
people
react
to
those
notes: what emotions are
aroused
in
them,
what
images,
if
any,
they
form
to
accompany
the
music,
what
arguments
the music
suggests.
This
of
course does
not
preclude
the
possibility
that a
changed
or
deepened
understanding
of the Double
Concerto's
structure will alter
such reactions.
The
assertion of relational
meanings
emphasizes
the fact
(once
disputed)
that
art
exists in no vacuum
free
of a social atmo-
sphere. Whatever pure or intrinsic qualities a work of art may have, it
has causes and
effects,
factors
influencing
it
and influenced
by
it,
ideas
which
bring
it
about
and ideas
brought
to
life
by
it.
A
complete
state-
ment
of all the
relational
meanings
of a
work of
art,
if
this were a
possibility,
would be an
account
of its
significance
in the life of
which
it
is
a
part.
If the artist's
breakfast
can
actually
be
indicated as
being
responsible
for
some
elements
in the
work
of
art,
then
the statement
of
that
responsibility
would be a
relational
meaning.
When some other
factor
(e.g.,
the
artist's attitude
towards some
aspect
of
life)
is
respon-
sible for elements of the work of art, then a statement of that responsi-
bility
could be called
a relational
meaning,
perhaps
a more
important
one.
B.
Interpretive
Meaning
A second
usage
of
the
word
meaning
in the
arts can
be called "inter-
pretive
meaning."
For
the
purpose
of
framing
a
preliminary
definition,
let
us
consider
an
illustration of
interpretive
meaning.
Take Freud's elaboration
on
how
art
gets
to mean
something.
In this elaboration
is
contained an
implicit
assertion
of
a
particular
sort of
meaning-claim
for
works
of
art:
...
to
those who
are
not
artists the
gratification
that can be
drawn
from the
8D. F.
Tovey,
Essays
in
Musical
Analysis
III
(London:
Oxford
University
Press,
1936), p.
145.
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THE
ARTS:
BEING THROUGH MEANING 105
springs
of
phantasy
is
very
limited;
their inexorable
repressions prevent
the
enjoyment
of all but the
meagre day-dreams
which can become conscious. A
true
artist
has
more at
his
disposal.
First
of all
he
understands
how to
elaborate
his
day-dreams
so that
they
lose that
personal
note
which
grates
upon
strange
ears
and
become
enjoyable
to
others;
he knows
too how
to mod-
ify
them
sufficiently
so that
their
origin
in
prohibited
sources
is
not
easily
detected.
Further,
he
possesses
the
mysterious
ability
to
mould
his
particular
material until it
expresses
the ideas of
his
phantasy
faithfully;
and then
he
knows
how
to attach
to
this reflection
of his
phantasy-life
so
strong
a
stream
of
pleasure
that,
for
a time at
least,
the
repressions
are out-balanced
and
dispelled
by
it.9
Now it seems to me that whatever verdict we
pass upon
the truth of
this statement
we must
recognize
that it indicates
one
sense
in
which
works of art
make a
meaning-claim.
It asserts that a
work
of
art
gives
us
in
some
way
some
particular
information,
in this
case "the ideas of
[the
artist's]
phantasy."
To the
question:
"What does this
work
of
art
mean?"
Freud
has
written:
Stefan
Zweig
...
has
a
story
which he calls
Vierundzwanzig
Stunden
aus
dem
Leben einer Frau
(Four
and
Twenty
Hours in a
Woman's
Life).
This
little
masterpiece ostensibly
purports
only
to
show
what
an
irresponsible
creature
woman is, and to what excesses, surprisingeven to herself, an unexpected ex-
perience
may
drive
her.
But the
story
tells
far
more
than
this: when
it is sub-
jected
to
an
analytical
interpretation
it
represents
without such
apologetic
tendencies
something quite
different,
something universally
human or rather
masculine. And
such an
interpretation
is so
obvious
that it cannot be denied.
It
is
characteristic of
the nature of
artistic
creation that the
author,
who
is
a
personal
friend,
was able to
assure
me that
the
interpretation
given by
me
was
completely
alien
both
to
his
mind and
his
intention,
although
many
details
were
woven into the
narrative
which
seemed
expressly
designed
to indi-
cate the
secret
clue
...
10
And Freud proceeds with a thorough psychoanalytic reading of the
story.
We are not interested in the truth
of
any
part
of
Freud's state-
ment
about the
meaning
content
of
Zweig's story.
We are
considering
the claim
implicit
in
it that the work of art tells
us
something,
even if
the mediation
of
a
theory
is
necessary,
and
also
the
form in
which Freud
maintains this
claim:
the form of
significant
discourse.
He
apparently
is
saying something
we understand
when
he
says:
"Zweig's story
really
means
.
. .
,"
etc.
Here
of
course
some
proponent
of a
"story-teller" theory
of fiction
could make the following objections:
9Sigmund
Freud,
A
General Introduction
to
Psychoanalysis (Garden
City:
Garden
City Publishing
Co.,
1938), p.
327.
10
Sigmund Freud,
"Dostoevski
and
Parricide,"
Partisan
Review,
Vol.
12,
No.
4
(Fall 1945),
530.
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106 GEORGE . STEIN
1. That the
interpretive meaning
here is
gratuitous, i.e.,
that
the
meaning
that
Freud
delineates
is
the
meaning
of
perhaps
an
interesting
story
but not
Zweig's
story
which is
a
mere
recounting
of
what has
happened
or
might
happen;
2.
That the
interpretive
meaning
here
is a
formal consideration
in-
volving
an
elaborate
theory
and
its
possible
connection with
reality,
i.e.,
that one
could
easily
predict
the
meaning
of
"Freud's"
story
from
the
general
claims
of his
psychoanalytic heory,
and that
this
is an
interesting
but
playful
deductive
procedure
from
a
theory
that
perhaps
has some
meaning;
3. That the
interpretive
meaning
is not
what
the
artist
intended, i.e.,
that
Zweig
did
not
intend to
convey
the
meaning
of
which
Freud
speaks;
and
4. That
one
does
not
apprehend
this
interpretive meaning
if
one
comes to
the
conclusion
that
Freudian
theory
is
scientifically
unsound.
A
consideration
of
these
objections
serves to
bring
out
the
formal
characteristicsof
the
kind
of
meaning
involved
here.
Answering
them in
order:
1. Freud
insists that
"many
details were woven into
the narrative
which
seemed
expressly
designed
to
indicate the
secret
clue,"
i.e.,
his
procedure
is
to be
empirical
about this
Zweig
story
and to relate
certain
details of it to certain theoretical
constructions which make the details
more
meaningful,
i.e.,
more
communicative
of
certain
facts--a
pro-
cedure
with
which
one can in
principle
hardly
argue.
This
procedure
allows
Freud to
make
a
statement of
the
form
"A
means B" where
Zweig's
story
as
it
appears literally
means
Zweig's
story
as
it
appears
interpretively
or
in its
interpretive meaning.
Thus in
principle
Freud
is
constructing
another
story only
in the
sense
that
we
end
up,
if
we are
convinced,
with
another
more
accurate
apprehension
of
what
Zweig's
story
has to
say
than we would
have
had without the Freudian inter-
pretation.
We are
led in this
case with the
help
of Freudian
theory
to
determine
what
the
story
"really
has to
say,"
that
is,
what,
on
the
assumption
of
a
more or less
plausible theory,
it
can be said to
mean
(interpretively).
2.
It is true that we would
probably
know what sort
of answer
a
"Freudian aesthetician" might give
to
the
question "What does 'Four
and
Twenty
Hours
in a
Woman's
Life'
interpretively
mean?"
if
we
knew
beforehand that
he
was
a "Freudian
aesthetician,"
that is to
say,
that
he adhered
generally
to
the
theory
stated
by
Freud
above. But
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THE
ARTS:
BEING THROUGH MEANING 107
there is
no doubt that
the
word
"meaning"
as
applied
to
the arts is
being
used here
significantly
both
in
question
and
answer: on
the basis
of
one
interpretation
Zweig's
story,
when
read in
the
light
of
theory
having
some
degree
of
probable
truth,
tells
us
many
facts
about the
(conscious
or
unconscious)
wishes
of the
artist.
And
presumably
if
the
artist
were
to
agree
to
the
interpretation
Freud makes
he
would
have
a
greater
degree
of
self-knowledge.
His
story
would
interpretively
mean
something
to
him,
i.e.,
give
him some
information about himself.
We
could
leave it as
optional
whether
or
not we
generalize
this
knowledge
into "something universallyhuman or rather masculine,"
an
extension
of the
scope
of the
meaning
not
necessary
for
our
present
argument.
If
we have more information
about
Zweig
after
reading
the
story
(with
the
Freudian
interpretation
in
mind
or
imposed
later
upon
the
story)
we
would
say
that
his
story
interpretively
means at
least
this
additional
information.
3.
Whether
Zweig
did
or
did not
intend
to
convey
certain informa-
tion is
not
important except biographically,
or
psychologically;
just
as
when I
say
"It is
raining"
it is not
important
for
a determination
of the
meaning of those three words to ascertain whether or not I intend to
convey
information,
true
or false.
As
a
matter of
fact Freud is
asserting,
however
paradoxical
it
may
sound,
that
Zweig
is
saying something
inter-
pretively
meaningful
which for
reasons
of inner
moral
censorship
he
cannot make
literally
meaningful.
And
this
must be considered for
what
it
is
worth
as
a scientific claim.
4. The
meaning
that
is
conveyed
to
Freud
is
obviously dependent
upon
the
existence of an
elaborate
psychological
theory.
But this
is
sometimes true of
the
simplest
linguistic
statements.
In
discussing
prob-
lems of translatability,Malinowskiremarkedupon the necessityin some
cases of
understanding
a whole culture and its
history
before under-
standing
the
meaning
of one sentence of that
culture's
language.1l
C.
Contextual
Meaning
We have often
heard it said that
ordinary language
states
meanings
while art
expresses
meanings.
And
some
theorists have
claimed that
whatever
the
differences
between
"stating"
and
"expressing,"
hey
are
both forms
of
communication
and
that art
is
in
some
way
a
superior,
more effective
form
of communication than
ordinary language.
On
the
basis of the
latter
claim
we can
be
led
to the
unusual
position
of
asserting
"
C. K.
Ogden
and
I.
A.
Richards, Meaning
of Meaning,
8th
ed.
(New
York:
Harcourt,
Brace,
1944),
pp.
301-02
(Supplement 1,
B.
Malinowski).
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108 GEORGE .
STEIN
that
a
statement
in
ordinary language
such as "There sometimes
seems
to be
a
spiritual entity
pervasively present
in
our
experience
of
natural
objects"
is less
communicative
than lines
93-102
of "Tintern
Abbey":
And
I
have felt
A
presence
hat disturbsme
with
the
joy
Of
elevated
houghts;
sensesublime
Of
something
ar
more
deeply
nterfused,
Whose
dwelling
s the
light
of
setting
uns,
And
the roundoceanand
the
living
air,
And
the
blue
sky,
and
in
the
mind
of man:
A motionand a spirit, hatimpels
All
thinking hings,
all
objects
of
all
thoughts,
And
rolls
through
ll
things.
In
one
sense of
the
word
expressive,
Wordsworth's
poetry
is
obviously
more
expressive
than
the
more or less literal
translation
above: certain
feelings
are
much
more
vividly
expressed
in
the
poetry
than
in the
"translation."But this is
an
evincing
and
an
evoking
more
adequately
described
in terms of relational
meaning.
Much
more
is
being
created
and/or
recreated
in the
poetry
than
specific feelings. Let us examine the poetry in the light of a sort of
meaning
we
may
call
contextual. Some
experiences
we
have
give
us an
awareness
extending beyond
the
moment and
revealing
to us the
sources,
movement,
and culmination
of
the
sorts
of
interactions
we have with
our
(physical
or
cultural)
environment. When an
object
or event
is
contrived
to
present
and
convey
such
an
awareness,
we
call the con-
trivance
a
work
of
art.
And
what
it is
contriving
is what we are
calling
contextual
meaning.
Now
let us take another
look at
"Tintern
Abbey":
Five
years
past:
five summers
with the length
Of five
ong
winters And
again
I hear
These
waters....
With these lines Wordsworth
begins
his
poem,
and
later in
the
poem
we
find
that
those five
years
this
landscape
has been of
special
value to
the
poet:
it has
given
him
serenity
and
pleasure
in
an otherwise chaotic
world.
He
finally
comes
to feel
the
presence
of a
source
for that
serenity
and
pleasure.
When
we
have lived
through
Wordsworth's
poem
and
have
finally
felt
the
expressed
quality
near Tintern
Abbey
we can
recon-
struct two elements which stamp the work as art:
1. We become
at
least aware
of,
even
if
we do not
completely
share
Wordsworth's
prior
values
(prior
to
the
expressive
act which eventuated
in
the
expressive
object,
the
poem),
visual
and
emotional states.
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THE ARTS: BEING THROUGH MEANING
109
2.
We
experience
the
existence
of a new
objective entity:
the
poem
which
in
its
words,
sounds,
and
rhythms
embodies a new
experience.
It
is
certainly
possible
to
imagine
Wordsworth
living through
those
five
years hearing
"these
waters,"
revisiting
and
actually
lying
down in
the sun to
... hear
These
waters,
rolling
from
their
mountain-springs
With
a
soft inland
murmur...,
and
to:
... see
These
hedge-rows,
hardly
hedge-rows,
little
lines
Of
sportive
wood
run
wild
..
,"
without ever
having
written "Tintern
Abbey."
There
would
then cer-
tainly
have been an
experience,
but none
of the
contrivances
of
poetry
would have been used
to
create an
ordering
of
events
designed
to reveal
either
to
Wordsworth
or
his
possible
readers the
total context
within
which specific events would "add-up" to mean something. The poem
does
in
fact
do
the latter
and tends
to
convince
the
reader
of the exis-
tence
(in
some
important sense)
of
the sort of
presence
he senses.
To be aware of
a
contextual
meaning
we
do not need an
interpretive
theory
of
the sort
which
generates
an
interpretive
meaning.
But
the
distinction
between contextual
meaning
and relational
meaning
is not
so
obvious. The events of the
past
which
may
be
apparent
in the hushed
reverberations
(in
Santayana's
phrase)
of
the
present experience
of
the
work
of
art,
are events
which
upon analysis
we
could
theoretically
relate
to the work of art. In a contextual meaning there are "these waters"
outside of and related to
the
poem,
and we
have
apparently simply
another relational
meaning.
The difference
lies
in the
importance
of
context
in
a
contextual
meaning.
Cezanne's Sainte-Victoire
may
have
the contextual
meaning
ascribed to it
by
critics
who
speak
of its revela-
tion of
spiritual
forces or
of
the manner in
which
it
echoes the
rhythm
of
the universe. But
none of
its
relational
meanings
could be stated as:
this
is the
way
the
world
outside
this
frame can be seen
-
a world of
spatial depth
through
nuanced
surfaces,
where
the
painting simply
indi-
cates this way of looking at the world with no construction of a universal
context. Yet this
way
of
looking
at the
world
is not
unrelated to
such a
possible
context.
Any
element which is
related to
the work
of
art
in
a
relational
meaning
may
be
brought
into
a context
of
other
elements
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110 GEORGE . STEIN
such
that where
previously
that element was
directly
related
to
the work
of
art,
it
would,
in
a contextual
meaning,
take
its
place
in a
meaningful
context
having
a
quality
and
significance
of its
own.
The
painting
prop-
erly
has
both
meanings
-
one of the
values
in
recognizing
both
mean-
ings
is that there
then
should be no
dispute
about
which
is the
meaning.
D.
Referential
Meaning
It
is
quite possible
for the
products
of human
activity
to
convey
meaning
without there
being
an
understanding
of
how
such
an
activity
conveys
the
meaning.
That
Rubens
in
The
Battle Between
Emperor
Constantine and Maxentius
conveys
a
meaning
is obvious to
everyone
who
looks at such an
allegorical
scene.
But this
is
not
as
obvious
in
a
Mondrian
painting.
And
yet
while
it
may
be
true that
this
is
so
because
the
Mondrian
painting conveys
no
meaning
in
fact,
it
may
possibly
be
the
case that since we have not
been sure
how
the Rubens
painting
conveyed meaning
that
therefore we have
no method
by
which
to
determine the
meaning
of
the
Mondrian
painting.
We
can
attempt
to
define such
a
method in
a
way
continuous with
ordinary
usage
of the
word
"reference."
In the
sciences,
we find a set of
symbols,
signs,
or marks used in
definable
ways
to refer
to
certain
aspects
of
their
spheres
of
interest,
i.e.,
we find
a
method for
"telling
about"
something.
The obvious
search,
if
art
is
to
have
any
referential
meaning,
is
for
a
defined
system
of marks
and sounds
by
which
it
may
refer to
aspects
of its
sphere
of interest.
By way
of
contrast to
this search
for method
we can
note that
Plato,
the source
philosopher
of
many
imitational,
representational,
and
refer-
ential theories of
art,
was not
interested
in
defining
the
method of refer-
ence
employedby
the
artistic endeavor.
He
was
concerned with
pointing
out that "the
soul
which
has seen
most of truth shall come
to
the
birth
as
a
philosopher,
or
artist,
or some musical
and
loving
nature"
and
at
some
later
time,
in
a
way
beyond complete
control,
recall that
truth.
In
the
Apology
Plato
knew
"that not
by
wisdom
do
poets
write
poetry,
but
by
a sort of
genius
and
inspiration;
they
are
like diviners or
sooth-
sayers
who
also
say
many
fine
things,
but
do
not understand the
mean-
ing
of them." That
is,
they
wrote
meaningful
poems
but
did
not know
by
what
method
the
poems
came
to have
meaning.
Let
us
consider
Mondrian's
Composition
in
Grey, Red, Yellow,
and
Blue.
What
we see
offhand
is
a
group
of
rectangular
blocks of
specifiable
primary
colors
-
the
boundaries of the
blocks
being
vertical and hori-
zontal
lines.
And let
us
call that a
description
of
the surface of the
painting.
At
this
point
let
us
temporarily
halt
the
analysis
and see if we
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THEARTS:BEINGTHROUGHMEANING
111
can derive
anything
from this
description
that could
be called
meaning.
We now notice that
we have
not
stepped
outside
the frame
of the
picture
except
in the
very
weak
sense
that
we
have
used
words
for
the
descrip-
tion of this
painting
which
are
used in
other
(artistic
and
nonartistic)
contexts.
And we have in
principle
fully
described
the
surface
of this
work
of
art. We
could
go
on
to
specify
the
size,
relative
position,
and
relative
hues,
intensity,
and values
of
the
colors,
i.e.,
all
the
objective
qualities
of the
painting.
There
is,
one
may
notice,
the fact
that
using
words
like
"yellow"
or
"vertical"immediately introduces something exterior to the painting or
outside
its
frame.
A
whole
group
of
comparisons
to events and
objects
outside the
frame is
made
possible by
the use of
words which
are
in
their
nature
generalized
so
that
they
may apply
to
outside
events and
objects.
These words tend to
pull
us
away
from
the
surface
but
only
in an unim-
portant
because undirected
way.
If
someone
were
to
say,
for
instance,
that
this
yellow
is
like the
yellow
of
many
bananas he has
seen and that
this
painting
therefore is
about some
aspect
of
bananas,
we
could
only
ask
for
some
rule
or
direction
by
which one could
go
from
this
yellow
to
those bananas. In the absence of such a rule or direction (method) one
could
say
only
that between the
description
of this
work
of
art
and the
description
of
the
experience
of
a banana there exists
only
the word
"yellow"
describing
some
element
common
to
the
experiences.
Thus
we
are left on the
surface,
or,
more
precisely,
in
our
experience
of
the
sur-
face,
despite
the use
of
the word
"yellow,"
because we
have
no rule
by
which
to
leave the
surface.
Yet
leaving
the surface in an undirected
way
means that
we
could derive some
meaning
(and
this
may
be
enough
or
all there
is
in
some works
of
art).
These
would be relational
meanings
such as "this work of art provides perceptual delight of a certain sort,"
or
"this
work
of art reminds
us
of
many previous
pleasant
experiences
of
bananas."
But here no direction is
given
to
the
way
in
which
we
leave the
surface.
Reactions differ from observer to
observer,
from
age
to
age,
and there
is no
authority
as
to
which reactions
must,
notwith-
standing
the artist's
intention,
be
had.
The
sense
configuration
he
pro-
duces
may
have effects other
than
he
anticipates,
intends,
or
desires,
and
there
is
nothing
improper
n this
happening.
A
variety
and
large
number
of relational
meanings
may
occur
(and
this has sometimes
been used
as
a measure of value of the work of art).
Let us further notice
that
there are
no
diagonals
or
curved lines
in
the
painting.
All lines
are
straight,
vertical,
or
horizontal;
and this deter-
mines the fact that
all the
shapes
are
rectangles.
This is
obviously
not like
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112 GEORGE P. STEIN
the
visual
field,
as the
purity
of color
was
like the
calmness
of the
spec-
tator in
the
visual field. Then
what
is its
relation
to
the
visual field?
Impressedby
the vastness
of
nature,
I
was
trying
to
express
its
expansion,
rest,
and
unity.
At
the
same
time,
I was
fully
aware
hat
the
visible
expansion
of nature
s
at the same
time its
limitation;
vertical and horizontal ines are
the
expression
f
two
opposing
orces;
these exist
everywhere
nd dominate
everything;
heir
reciprocal
action
constitutes"life." I
recognized
hat the
equilbrium
f
any particular
spect
of naturerests on the
equivalence
of its
opposites.
felt
that
the
tragic
s created
by unequivalence.
saw
the
tragic
in a
wide
horizontal
r a
high
cathedral.l1
From Mondrian'scompositionto the struggle against the tragicmight
seem
like
a
long
jump,
but
in
this
painting
we can
see
the
preparations
for,
execution
of,
and
ensuing
excitement of
a
very
methodical
leap.
Looking
at
this
composition
with Mondrian's
view
of
"nature
expand-
ing"
in all
vision,
we can see
it as a visual field of no
particular,
deter-
mined
origin
or location. In
this
field we
must
see a
necessary
imitation
if we are to
see
anything, any
form.
We see this
limitation
by
means
of
verticals
and
horizontals
(curved
lines could
have
accomplished
the
same effect
to some
degree,
but the limitations
they suggest
are
not as
abruptor dramatic as a straight ine block).
What we
have seen
in
this
painting,
as described n the last
paragraph,
is
not
a matter of
simple
vision
or
survey
of
the surface
of the canvas.
It
required seeing
the verticals
and
horizontals
of this
painting
as limita-
tion of
the
"visible
expansion
of
nature," i.e.,
in terms
of
a
concept
logically previous
to
the
painting.
Mondrian is of course
not
talking
about
the
universe
(which
may actually
be
expanding
but
certainly
not
visibly).
He must be understood
as
talking
about
the visual
field
and its
characteristics.
A concept "the visible expansion of nature" was thus one of the
causes of this
painting
and is
also one
of
the
relational
meanings
of
the
painting.
But
it is also the
pre-work-of-artconcept
motivating
the
paint-
ing.
This
concept
has a content made evident
by
the
painting:
the
visual
field
naturally
expands
when we
open
our
eyes;
it
expands
until it is
limited
by
two basic
sorts of
lines,
verticals and
horizontals;
when verti-
cals
and horizontals
are seen as
forces
they
are
sometimes seen
to
be
in
balance,
thus
giving
their
visual
fields
qualities
of
rest and
calm
which
may
be felt
by
a
spectator.
It
is
possible
that
this
concept
be
a
constituent of a relational
meaning
of the
painting
and still be an in-
adequate pre-work-of-art concept.
For
instance
there
undoubtedly
are
12
Piet
Mondrian,
Plastic
Art
and
Pure Plastic Art
(New
York:
Wittenborn,
Schultz,
1945),p.
13.
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THE
ARTS: BEING THROUGH
MEANING 113
some
spectators who, given
the
pre-work-of-art concept
of
this
painting
might
not
have
feelings
such
as
would
make
the
concept
evident in
this
painting.
By
virtue of the
visible resemblance
between
the
verticals
and
horizontals of
this
painting
and those seen
in
nature,
one
could
say
that
Mondrian has been
painting
nature but
distorting
it
to extreme.
This
of
course is true but
says
very
little:
it
says
merely
that
"remote
resonances"
are
discernible. The
questions
"Why
distortion?"
"Why
to
extreme?"
bring
to
focus the method
Mondrian is
using.
He is
selecting
elements of
a
plastic language:
straight
vertical and horizontal lines
and
pure
color
to
point
in
a
definite
(its
definiteness establishes
to
its extent the
exis-
tence of a
language)
and
unique
(what
make this
work of art
new)
way
to certain
"specific
sections of
reality":
expansion,
forces,
equilibrium.
He
points
to
those
facts
by
giving
us
a
particular
instance of
exempli-
fication,
in
terms
and materials
of an art
form,
of
a
concept
logically
previous
to this
painting.
Mondrian's
painting
now can
be said
to
mean
referentially
(whatever
else
it
means)
that a
visible
expansion
occurs
in
visual
fields and that
this
expansion
encounters certain
characteristic
obstacles
(verticals
and
horizontals) and has certain resolutions in a "dynamic equilibrium."
This
meaning
is
presented
in
the
painting
by
means
of a
pointed
exem-
plification
of
such
logically prior
concepts
as "visible
expansion,"
"ob-
stacles,"
"dynamic
equilibrium"
and
"pure
reality."