Form in art
Michael Lacewing
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© Michael Lacewing
Form and content
• Emphasis on representation leads to a focus
on what is represented, not how.
• Many aesthetic judgments pick out form –
e.g. grace, elegance, balance, harmony.
– Relation between non-aesthetic elements
• We do not respond to works of art in the
same way as we would if we were seeing
what is represented.
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks (14911508)
Caravaggio’s Salome receives the head of St John
the Baptist (1607-10)
Kant on aesthetic pleasure
• Aesthetic pleasure is ‘disinterested’
– Whether what is represented exists is irrelevant.
We enjoy simply contemplating it.
– Approving of what is represented is irrelevant to
our enjoyment
– Whether what is represented is something we
want or could use is irrelevant.
– Aesthetic pleasure is not itself the satisfaction of
any independent desire or practical interest.
• Aesthetic pleasure is a response to form.
How we can respond to form
• Perception involves two faculties: imagination
(which organizes sensory input) and understanding
(which provides concepts)
• Usually, perception is dominated by concepts. In
aesthetic response, we free up our imagination.
– Disinterested, so not concerned with reality
• Our imagination has ‘free play’ in how it organizes
what we see, our understanding has free play in
creating new concepts.
• This free play is enabled by the form of what we
experience.
Bell on significant form
• All art, in fact, every picture, movement,
series of sounds, has some form.
• Aesthetic response is not to form per se, but
‘significant form’.
• We can only identify whether something has
significant form by our aesthetic response to
it.
• Art is about the exploration of form, the
contemplation of form for its own sake.
Discussion
• Perfect forgeries have the same form,
but aren’t valued the same.
– There are no perfect forgeries.
• Significant form isn’t defined.
– No further definition can be given.
• We don’t just respond to the form of
an artwork.
Rembrandt, Self-portrait at the age of 63 (1669)
Discussion
• What is the role of form?
– It must have some role – representation is not
everything.
– In some art, there is no representation, e.g.
music
– Expressivism can argue that it is the emotions
expressed that matter - form is just a means to
this.
• Kant’s theory makes only the aesthetic
pleasure of the individual important – but
what about communication?