Rene Magritte's Ceci n'est Pas Une Pipe and Les Deux Mysteres
The aesthetic value of Rene Magritte’s paintings is driven by a relationship manufactured by the artist. By specifically targeting an audience who can recognize that a set of established artistic interpretations are being challenged in his paintings, Magritte generates a dialectic argument that attempts to deconstruct Plato’s mimetic interpretation of art. As a result, the painting of a negated representation contained within a painted representation of that same object necessarily appeals to a subjective and not objective desire to comprehend Magritte’s intent. In other words, because we (the audience) know that you (the artist) know that your breaking the “rules,” a specific interest rather than a disinterested idea of beauty influences the aesthetic judgment of Magritte’s work.
The we know that you know concept in Magritte’s paintings Ceci n’est Pas Une Pipe and Les Deux Mysteres effectively illustrates the nebulous connotations of beauty and the difficulty of determining an objects aesthetic value. Because of the complexity of ideas created by the different perspectives inherent in all creative endeavors, critics and philosophers, such as Joseph Addison and Immanuel Kant, have attempted to define the parameters of aesthetic judgment. Consequently, Addison and Kant each developed an argument that identified the parameters of aesthetic judgment and highlighted the sense of taste necessary for the recognition of beauty. As a result, in the interpretation of Magritte’s paintings, both Addison and Kant would conclude-- from different reasons drawn from their respective arguments--that Magritte’s work fails to attain a level of achievement consistent with the beautiful.
At the top of Addison’s triarchy of aesthetic judgment or taste is the idea that “true wit” (an Addison synonym for beauty) is grounded in the “resemblance of ideas… that gives delight and surprise” to an individual (Addison, 264). Working primarily as a source of literary criticism, Addison’s argument about the judgment of taste appears in his Spectator essays that are nonetheless dedicated to the defense of all “higher” forms of artistic endeavors and to the supremacy of “polite society” as the guardians of true wit (Lecture). For Addison, the ability to recognize true wit represented a necessary prerequisite for an individual’s acceptance into polite society. Further more, Addison’s argument implied that the judgment of beauty, although based on an ideal of objectivity, is in part an empirical knowledge gained from the “rules and arts of criticism” that provided the “accuracy and correctness” for contemporary true wit to exist (Addison, 261).
Riva’s artistic side helped her go through the Holocaust with at least some entertainment. Riva’s specialty was poetry; poetry even saved her life when she was sent to a hospital because she needed to be kept alive for her poetry. Riva’s poetry helped the girl’s morale that made them want to work hard, so they can get out of the labor camp. This artistic trait made Riva unique and made her stand out from the rest of the girls in her camps.
In the essay “Naturalism and the Venetian ‘Poesia’: Grafting, Metaphor, and Embodiment in Giorgione, Titian, and the Campagnolas,” Campbell explains the role of poetic painting, poesia, in Venetian artwork during the 1500s. Titian personally used the term poesia when he “[referred] to paintings he was making for [King Philip II] with subject matter derived from the ancient poets.” Poesia now refers to a type of sixteenth century Venetian painting, which Giorgione and Titian initiated and used within their works. Campbell’s main argument is that poesia is not simply aesthetic or reflective of poetry, but rather “grounded in the process of making – and in making meaning – rather than in an aesthetics of self-sufficiency or self-referentiality.” Like poetry, it is not self-contained; meaning lies outside of the work, within the interpretations of the viewers. He discusses the idea of grafting in poetry and how the same grafting model is utilized in the visual arts. Different images, such as pagan figures and contemporary figures and settings, are juxtaposed to create visual discordance and give an intrinsic meaning to the viewer. Campbell then uses many examples of writing, poetry, engravings, and paintings to explore his argument and the connections between artists during the 1500s.
The case started in Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks from her house, but the principal of the school refused simply because the child was black. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help (All Deliberate Speed pg 23). The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. The NAACP was looking for a case like this because they figured if they could just expose what had really been going on in "separate but equal society" that the circumstances really were not separate but equal, bur really much more disadvantaged to the colored people, that everything would be changed. The NAACP was hoping that if they could just prove this to society that the case would uplift most of the separate but equal facilities. The hopes of this case were for much more than just the school system, the colored people wanted to get this case to the top to abolish separate but equal.
Furthermore, resonation can be found in Preziosi exploration of the establishment of female identification through aesthetics. Within Preziosi chapter on aesthetics he addresses main issues including “Kant’s Critique of Judgment, judgment about beauty, and perception of perfection.” Aesthetics was addressed in the perception of how the female body is formed and encased while a male looks at the female body. In this case the male would be Degas gazing at his ballerina while either sketching his model or doing a sculpture of the ballerina. Preziosi states that “there should be two kinds of theory or sciences of knowledge corresponding to each logic and aesthetics.” This concept of two kinds of theory made more apparent as every sculptor Degas made is presented as a different theory, yet the two theories are different, Degas’s artwork deals with both logic and aesthetics. Logic can be applied to Degas’s____, works of art. Where as aesthetics deals with____. Later on in Preziosi chapter on aesthetics, he brings up the issue of “the idea that sensory knowledge could have its own perfection-and, further, that an aesthetic judgment about beauty or beautiful objects.” When viewing Degas’s sculptor the
Artists are masters of manipulation. They create unimaginably realistic works of art by using tools, be it a paintbrush or a chisel as vehicles for their imagination to convey certain emotions or thoughts. Olympia, by Manet and Bierstadt’s Sierra Nevada Mountains both are mid nineteenth century paintings that provide the viewer with different levels of domain over the subject.
The request for an injunction pushed the court to make a difficult decision. On one hand, the judges agreed with the Browns; saying that: “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children...A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn” (The National Center For Public Research). On the other hand, the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson allowed separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites, and no Supreme Court ruling had overturned Plessy yet. Be...
“Separate is not equal.” In the case of Plessey vs. Ferguson in 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court said racial segregation didn’t violate the Constitution, so racial segregation became legal. In 1954 the case of Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka this case proved that separate is not equal. Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was revolutionary to the education system, because colored people and Caucasians had segregated schools. The Caucasians received a better education and the colored people argued that they were separate but not equal. This would pave the way for integrated schools and change the education system as we knew it.
The Sadducees were a very influential group in Judaism, many being priests (Wenham and Walton 40). There was no worry to the Sadducees of losing their position because it was “secure under Roman rule” (Wenham and Walton 41). Their beliefs were different from the Pharisees in that they did not practice oral traditions, that is verbally telling the stories of the Scriptures. Even though they accepted the Old Testament scriptures, they only practiced the beliefs that were in the Pentateuch, which is the first five books from the Old Testament (Murphy 239; Wenham and Walton 42). Another underlying belief the Sadducees had was their disbelief in resurrection as well as they did not believe in fate (Evans 100; Wenham and Walton 42). Furthermore, according to Josephus, the Sadducees “were far more open to the pleasures of life, were harsh in their judgments against those who broke the law…[and] did not believe in heaven or hell” (Evans 105). Thus, the Sadducees were seen as people who did not treat anyone fairly, nor treat each other justly.
Indentured servitude was the solution for inexpensive labor. Colonists realized that they had an abundance of land to attend to, but they didn’t have anyone to take care of it. The expense of the passage to the Colonies weighed heavy on the poor or lower class, but not the wealthy upper class. In an effort to attract laborers for working the land the Virginia Company came up with a system called indentured servitude. This system became an important aspect of the colonial economic system. Many skilled and unskilled workers were without work due to the economic decline in Europe resulting from the Thirty Years war. Indentured servitude presented many of those workers with hope for a brighter future than they would otherwise have achieved. The early immigrants who journeyed from England to the American Colonies consisted of nearly two thirds of the total amount of indentured servants. In exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and “freedom dues” they typically worked as indentured servants for 4 to 7 years. Although this life was harsh and restrictive, it wasn’t analogous to slavery.
...th servants, slaves were forced to labor for life, with no promise of release or claims to land. African slaves were not accustomed to the North American geography, making it harder for them to run away. Selling slaves was also hugely profitable. James Madison said that “he could make $257 on every Negro in a year, and spend only $12 or $13 on his keep.” With declining numbers of people willing to become servants, and the availability of African slaves, the Slave system was quick to replace indentured servitude.
The Brown versus Board of Education decision was an immense influence on desegregation of schools and a milestone in the movement for equality between the blacks and whites that continues today. The Brown versus Board of Education case was not the first of its type. Since the early 50's, five separate cases were filed dealing with the desegregation of schools. In all but one of these cases, the schools for whites were finer than the schools for the blacks. The black people argued that this situation was not right and unconstitutional (Dudley, 1).
In Confronting Images, Didi-Huberman considers disadvantages he sees in the academic approach of art history, and offers an alternative method for engaging art. His approach concentrates on that which is ‘visual’ long before coming to conclusive knowledge. Drawing support from the field of psycho analytics (Lacan, Freud, and Kant and Panofsky), Didi-Huberman argues that viewers connect with art through what he might describe as an instance of receptivity, as opposed to a linear, step-by-step analytical process. He underscores the perceptive mode of engaging the imagery of a painting or other work of art, which he argues comes before any rational ‘knowing’, thinking, or discerning. In other words, Didi-Huberman believes one’s mind ‘sees’ well before realizing and processing the object being looked at, let alone before understanding it. Well before the observer can gain any useful insights by scrutinizing and decoding what she sees, she is absorbed by the work of art in an irrational and unpredictable way. What Didi-Huberman is s...
Due to the subjective nature of the impressionistic art and literary style, both mediums possess an ambiguous quality. According to Bernard Dunstan, in Painting Methods of the Impressionists, impressionism “has come to have overtones and associations which can obscure its true meaning,” (11). This is also true for impressionistic literature. However, Metz argues that “ambiguity surrounds the process through which the impre...
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus defines beauty and the artist's comprehension of his/her own art. Stephen uses his esthetic theory with theories borrowed from St. Thomas Aquinas and Plato. The discourse can be broken down into three main sections: 1) A definitions of beauty and art. 2) The apprehension and qualifications of beauty. 3) The artist's view of his/her own work. I will explain how the first two sections of his esthetic theory relate to Stephen. Furthermore, I will argue that in the last section, Joyce is speaking of Stephen Dedalus and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as his art.
Philosophies of Art and Beauty Edited by Hofstadter and Kuhns, (Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1976) chapters one and two for an overview of the aesthetics of Plato and Aristotle.