R. G. Collingwood's Theory Of Art Is Expression

1303 Words3 Pages

Art uses beauty, emotion, and drama to influence the audience into expressing their feelings. R.G. Collingwood argues that art is not an object that you can fabricate, it is the expression of emotion in your mind. Giving an expression individualizes it, which rather than describing the emotion in words, the expression is a feature of the statement itself. This means that art shouldn’t have any limits because expression wouldn’t be able to differentiate itself from others. Art is expression, it is important because we need to able to recognize what our feelings are therapeutic. Expression is needed to make art because it gives it a unique sense to it and gives people different emotions based on that expression. Collingwood is right to think that art is expression. Expression theory is a therapeutic value of art. “To become fully conscious of it means becoming conscious of it not merely as an instance of anger, but as this quite peculiar anger. Expressing it, we saw, has something to do with becoming conscious of it; …show more content…

His theory is that art is made from an expression of the artist and the art allows the audience to feel their own emotions. “So an ‘artist’ setting out to produce a certain emotion in his audience is setting out to produce not an individual emotion, but an emotion of a certain kind,” (113). This is an example of arousing an emotion. So this defends the argument by showing that everyone is feeling something from the artwork, no matter the feeling, they are feeling something from the artwork. Even though, in the counter-argument it showed someone feeling anger towards that song, it makes it therapeutic because that person was able to express an emotion from that song. If they were never to listen to the song, they wouldn’t have been able to express that emotion of anger that they’ve never experienced before. Art allows you to express

Show More
Related

  • Freudian Defense Mechanism

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, adolescents are often forced into therapy by their parents or school as a result of an inability to cope with stress in a socially acceptable way. Patients at this stage are too old to engage in play therapy, where therapists analyze a child’s behavior during play and when presented with toys. Also, patients acting out during adolescence are often too young to obtain the maturity to verbalize their emotions in a socially acceptable form. Art therapy is useful at this stage of development because similar impulses expressed in play therapy are expressed through drawings, meanwhile not requiring verbal communication. Art therapy introduces the mature defense mechanism of sublimation to the patient, guiding them to achieve better self control as they learn to communicate their impulses through art and talking about their art. A particular form of therapy is managed in groups, and adolescents are encouraged to engage in conversation about their drawings while they are creating them. This creates an environment of low anxiety, allowing patients communicate internal conflict and disregard their normal defense mechanisms that are used to conceal these emotions. The defense mechanism of sublimation is apparent in this process, as the use of color, composition, space and shapes to provide an

    Read More

  • Floyd Dell's Intellectual Vagabondage

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book was also one of my first encounters with an important truth of art: that your work is powerful not because you convey a new emotion to the audience, but because you tap into an emotion the audience already feels but can't express.

    Read More

  • The Sound of a Hundred Feathers: The Symbolism of Richard Hook's Painting, Adoption of the Human Race

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Art has always been considered the effervescent universal tool of communication. Art does not require a concrete directive . One sculpture,drawing or written creative piece, can evoke a myriad of emotions and meaning . Artistic pieces can sometimes be considered the regurgitation of the artist's internal sanctum. In Richard Hooks graphic painting,Adoption of the Human Race, the effect of the imagery,symbols ,color and emotional content projects a profound unification of a spiritual edict.

    Read More

  • Definition Essay - Does Art Defy Definition

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to Webster’s Dictionary, art is “human expression of objects by painting, etc” (10). The words “human experience” adds meaning to art. Artists reveal their inner thoughts and feelings through their work. When we study a painting by Salvador Dali, the strange objects and the surrealist background portrays the eccentricity of the painter. Some ideas cannot be explained verbally. They can only be shown via a medium. We can get across what is in our minds or our hearts by a stroke of a brush, a drop of paint, a row of words, or something else. But to express ourselves, we do not need to limit what we call art.

    Read More

  • Art Therapy

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Art therapy is a form of therapy in making of visual images (paintings, drawings, models etc.) in the presences of a qualified art therapist contributes towards externalization of thoughts and feelings which may otherwise remain unexpressed”(Walter & Gilory, 1992).

    Read More

  • Marela Zacarias Analysis

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    If I were to ask you what is art, and how can one find it? What would you say? Well if it were me being asked those question, I would simply say that art to me is a form of a picture; a visual painting or model of some design and it could be found all among us. You may define it differently only because art could be defined in many ways. I could simply say that art to me is a form of a picture; a visual painting or model of some design. Well according to an article written by Shelley Esaak, an art history expert she mentioned that art has a way of stimulating different parts of our brains to make us laugh or incite us to riot, with a whole gamut of emotions in between. She also mentioned that art gives us a way to be creative and express ourselves. [1]

    Read More

  • The Two Main Branches of Art Therapy

    2172 Words  | 5 Pages

    With Freud and others at the forefront of modern psychological thinking, it is not surprising that the theories of psychoanalysis entered into art therapy. Margret Naumberg, considered by many to be the creator of art therapy, incorporated her concepts of artistic creation and symbolism with Freudian psychoanalysis (Junge, 2010). Art psychotherapy assumes “that imagery [is] an outward projection of the patient’s inward intrapsychic processes” and relies on “symbolic communication between the patient and therapist” (Junge, 2010, p. 38). Naumberg’s approach to analysis differed from Freud’s however. She allowed the patient to make his or her own interpretations rather than rely on the omnipotent therapist to provide insight (Junge, 2010). Goals of art psychotherapy include: making the unconscious conscious, transference through art making to the artwork itself, and client-based interpretation.

    Read More

  • American Abstract Art

    2425 Words  | 5 Pages

    Abstract Expressionist artists believed that the subconscious mind could recognise and respond to the emotions portrayed in their paintings. To aid this absorption of feeling, blocks of colour and simple forms were used extensively. `Abstract expressionism's avowed purpose is to express the self to the self.' (Page 2, David and Cecil)

    Read More

  • Expressionism in Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table

    443 Words  | 1 Pages

    Expressionism can be described as a movement in the fine arts that emphasized the expression of inner experience rather than solely realistic portrayal, seeking to depict not objective reality, but the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist. Several characteristics of expressionism are distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy. “The Green Table,” a ballet by Kurt Jooss, is an ideal example of expressionism because it depicts the choreographer’s personal interpretation of war through the use of movement, music and lighting.

    Read More

  • Aesthetic Emotion Essay

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    AA theory by Clive Bell suggests the pinpoints the exact characteristic which makes a work true art. According to Bell, an artwork must produce “aesthetic emotion” (365). This aesthetic emotion is drawn from the form and formality of an artwork rather than whether or not it is aesthetically pleasing or how well it imitates what it is trying to depict. The relation of objects to each other, the colors used, and the qualities of the lines are seemingly more important than what emotion or idea the artwork is trying to provoke. Regardless of whether or not the artwork is a true imitation of certain emotions, ideals, or images, it cannot be true art unless it conjures this aesthetic emotion related to formality (367).

    Read More

  • Disadvantages Of Art Therapy

    1848 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the disadvantages of art therapy is that the therapist is more vulnerable to misinterpretation in terms of the objective understanding of content. Care must be taken not to make rapid interpretations on the specific piece of art which might prevent or even deny the client the satisfaction of discovering and finding out for herself (Case and Dalley, p. 65). This is because art therapy involves a lot of interpretation, it is understandable that critics about this technique are similar to that of psychotherapy. The client’s images can come across as many things with contrasting ideas, but only the individual themself can explain it. The therapist is urged not to point out obvious red signals, instead they should allow the client to come up with their own interpretations. Their own interpretations alone are something to make note of as it may shed some light on the client's thought process about the

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Art In Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray

    1881 Words  | 4 Pages

    The beauty of a portrait, the adventure of a saga, the delicacy of a porcelain vase, the emotion of a symphony – all forms of art, all forms of expression. Art, as Oscar Wilde explains it, is the “most intense mode of individualism that the world has ever known” (Wilde, The Soul of a Man Under Socialism). Art allows one to express themselves through a thousand mediums, using all five senses. It allows words that are not meant to be spoken, to be expressed, and ideas not meant to be thought, imagined. Perhaps the most prevalent form of art in today's society is literature, as is the most direct form of art.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Scream

    1835 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emotions are inborn feelings that derive from one’s temper and relationships with other people. Anger, love, sadness, happiness, and fear are all emotions that everyone feels. In the past, many people experienced difficulty expressing their emotions physically and so they developed their own ways to do so. Art was one of the ways that people sought after to express their emotions. Numerous artists found art to be an easy gateway for them to convey their emotions through it rather than conveying them physically. These artists would either show their own emotions and ideas through their works or they would try to spark specific emotions in the viewer’s mind. Some of the famous artists who were known for communicating emotions through art were

    Read More

  • A Simple Definition of Art

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mind creates the emotions and ideals responsible for art. The brain is capable of imagining glorious things, and art is the physical manifestation of these ideals. These ideals are usually intense emotions with aesthetic power (Wilson, 220). Art organizes these emotions in a matter that can easily express the ideals to...

    Read More

  • The Esthetic Theory and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, Stephen states the theory that art should invoke esthetic emotions. These emotions are confined only to the intellect and are incapable of manifesting themselves in a physical manner: "The esthetic emotion is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing." (Pg. 149). An example of esthetic emotion being static can be found in Keats' poem, "Ode on a Grecian Urn." In this poem, the scene on the urn of two young lovers just about to kiss is frozen in time. Their feelings of anticipation, excitement, and innocence are still felt by the urn's viewers even though their act can never be carried out. Human emotion, like the picture on the urn, is static. Also, anything that induces a physical reaction, such as flinching, cannot be art. This is because it has nothing to do with the intellect, but an animal reaction caused by nerves. Stephen's experience with visiting prostitutes for the first time exemplifies this theory: "His hands clenched convulsively and his teeth set together as he suffered the agony o...

    Read More

More about R. G. Collingwood's Theory Of Art Is Expression

Open Document