Available Online at http://iassr.org/journal
2013 (c) EJRE published by
International Association of Social Science Research - IASSR
ISSN: 2147-6284
European Journal of Research on Education, 2013, Special Issue: Art in Education, 33-37
European
Journal of
Research on
Education
Language and interpretation of aesthetics in art education
Hatice Nilüfer Süzen a *
Assoc. Prof. Dr., Uşak University, Fine Art Faculty, Uşak, Turkey
a
Abstract
Aesthetics as a discipline studies the nature, content, value and origin of art. The word aesthetics originates from the words
“aisthanesthai” (to hear, to perceive) and “aisthesisi” (emotion, sense). Art depicts the beauty when it reproduces the beauty in
nature. It is among the tasks of the aestheticians to propose theories when studying the universal structure of art. The theory of art
explaining the reason to accept objects or events as art consists of proposals determining the common features shared by all
works of art. It is possible to reach an aesthetic judgement about a work of art by using the art theories. The harmony of form and
content, priority of content and effective role of form are among the problems of aesthetics. A work of art is an asset of aesthetics
and culture above its sensible existence. Contribution of interaction of different disciplines to the artistic activities and art views
of the students should be ensured. In this sense, we will attempt to find an answer to the question “how more we can benefit from
‘aesthetics’ in the education of art” for introducing the concept of aesthetics to the individuals, for enabling them to have the skill
to read art and works of art with the theories of art in relation of art and aesthetics.
© 2013 European Journal of Research on Education by IASSR.
Keywords: Aesthetics, art and aesthetics, aesthetics and culture
1. Introduction
The word “aesthetics” is also used in our daily life and it is the name of a special research area in philosophy.
Aesthetics started to be used not only in the field of philosophy but also in the fields of design and fashion. Similarly
“aesthetics” is also used in describing the sensitivity and style of a work of art (Kul- Want- Piero,2007). When we
look at the etymological meaning of the word we have an idea about the basic research objects of this field. The
word “aesthetics” originates from the Greek word aisthanomai which means “perceiving through senses”. The word
Aisthesis is used to mean perception and sense.
We all may be aesthetically pleased by a work of art. We all can say something about art, beauty and aesthetics.
Accordingly the word “aesthetics” means the information revealed by our senses and perceptions (Taşdelen&
Yazıcı, 2012).
Aesthetics incorporates theoretical interpretation of art which moves from concrete to abstract in order to carry
out critical analysis of some events in art, to ground general laws of artistic design and to define the artistic concepts
and categories. There are four basic structural elements in the ontic integrity of aesthetic phenomenon. These are
aesthetic subject, aesthetic object, aesthetic value or beautiful and aesthetic judgement. Aesthetic phenomenon or
aesthetic entity takes place as an ontic integrity of these four elements (Tunalı;1996:21). The content of aesthetics is
related to the general art questions like what is art, what is the difference between copy and work of art, are there
any criteria in evaluating works of art and is artistic uniqueness meaningful (Aykut, 2012).
* E-mail address: [email protected]
Hatice Nilüfer Süzen
2. Emergence of the words Baumgarten and Aesthetics
It can be said that the history of aesthetic dates back to 2500 years ago. However, in the middle of the 18th
century, the ideas about the essence of beauty and art could integrate with philosophy and theology and was put into
paper and it was possible to analyze different concrete arts like poem, painting, music and architecture
(Kagan, 2008).
The first thing to be said about Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-1762) in terms of aesthetics and art
philosophy is that he was the first philosopher who used the word “aesthetics”. In his work called Aesthetica
(Aesthetics) he wrote between 1750-1758, he tried to reveal the autonomy, borders and content of this concept as
a branch of philosophy. Baumgarten used the word “aesthetics” in the meaning of “perceiving the beauty through
senses” particularly in art. In other words, aesthetics is a field studying sensual competence that is beauty
(Taşdelen& Yazıcı, 2012). Baumgarten examined the sense knowledge and the significance of sensual perception.
In short, its purpose is to reveal the science of sensual knowledge.
In this sense, the aesthetic approach of Baumgarten is a sensual perception theory. The perception theory
developed by Baumgarten has turned later into two unique main phenomena: first is the perception of beauty
defined as “competence of sensual perception” by Baumgarten and added to good and correct which are the basic
categories of ethics and logic by imposing the meaning of basic category of aesthetics. The second is the art
phenomena which finds highest expression of beauty in the artistic activity of human beings (Kagan,2008).
According to Baumgarten, aesthetics is such a field which includes both a theory of knowledge and logic and a
theory of art.
In this respect, aesthetics is a preparatory intermediary step in the maturation of reason. According to
Baumgarten, some of our perceptions are obvious while some of them are vague. Skill of knowledge varies
depending on the knowledge of what is obvious or what is vague. Upper knowledge skill which is related to pure
reason or reasoning provides clear perception. The lower knowledge or lower knowledge skill related to what is
sensual provides ambiguous and vague perception (Taşdelen& Yazıcı,2012).
This example from Aristotle is a modern idea recognized even today: “When an object which we dislike in reality
becomes a completed picture, then we look at it with liking, such as the pictures of animals and corpses which create
revulsion” (Poetica). This idea which can be considered modern is the idea that “beauty in nature can become ugly
when in art while the ugliness in nature can become beautiful when in art” (Tunalı, 2004).
In ordinary life, we are undoubtedly used to talk about a beautiful “colour”, a “beautiful” sky, a “beautiful” river,
“beautiful” flowers, “beautiful” animals and about “beautiful” people (Hegel, 2011).
Usually, thinkers and aestheticians draw absolute borders between the beauty of nature and beauty of art. They
keep art beauty superior than the nature beauty. Some go further and say that understanding nature beauty can only
be possible after an educational raising with art beauty, that art takes people to nature and nature beauty and trains
persons to understand the nature beauty (Tunalı,1996).
The dialectics of the relation what is aesthetic and artistic determines the structure of the own subject of
aesthetics. Aesthetics is not only a philosophy of beauty but also the philosophy of art, and more precisely, the
science of social art culture (Kagan, 2008).
On the other hand, aesthetics also includes values of exalted, elegant, funny, interesting and even ugly. All these
values have an aesthetic meaning.
The same result also takes place when the aesthetic qualities of a colour will be analyzed. Is the colour red
beautiful? Fechner provides a sarcastic answer to this question: “yes, the colour red is beautiful on the cheek of a
beautiful girl. But, what if the same colour was on the nose? As it can be understood from here, aesthetic quality of
form depends on the content it describes (Kagan, 2008).
Aesthetics is a point of view, a forecast, a general order of liking, a system of rules to materialize this liking.
Aesthetics is a unique way of design (Timuçin, 2008).
Actually, it may be more correct to ask about why we like something instead of asking about what makes
something beautiful. It is to talk about why we like an object. The reasons of liking or disliking an object may be
related to our own rather than the object (Townsend, 2002).
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Language and interpretation of aesthetics in art education
In this sense, aesthetics have to address to not only to the results of artistic creation but also the process of artistic
creation itself. Therefore, the field of research of aesthetics is not only the art but a certain communication system to
cover the artist, the work of art and the person perceiving art (Kagan, 2008).
However, although the human mind tends to be pleased by some objects, not everyone has the same condition of
pleasure. While beauty and ugliness totally belong to feeling not to a quality in objects, certain qualities of objects
reveal this feeling. A person is deprived of aesthetic sensitivity if certain qualities of objects, small differences or
fine details do not impress him. Secondly, lack of practice is one of the main reasons of the lack of aesthetic feeling
or sensitivity. When a person faces for the first time an object with certain qualities, his feeling about it is vague and
confused. He cannot see many beautiful and incomplete parts of an object. Hume goes on saying “but, let someone
gain experience in these objects, his feelings will be more obvious and pleasant”(Hume,1987). The third one is that
a person without an experience of comparing certain beauty types will not be able to tell the difference between
what he sees and to make an evaluation and grading among them.
That means aesthetic sensitivity reveals its existence in our daily life first to ourselves and then to kith and kin.
The spark of aesthetics shows its first splendour in our ordinary relation with the world. A person painting the walls
of an isolated building, decorating a soup with a parsley or combing hair sideward is actually realizing beauty
(Timuçin, 2008).
3. Aesthetic Training of an Individual
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), a leading representative of German romantism, is known with his works in the
fields of literature, poem, play writing and aesthetics. His work Letters on Aesthetic Education of man including his
views on aesthetics and aesthetic education examines the philolosophical analysis of beauty, its relation with arts
and culture and its impact on the aesthetic education on human beings.
Aesthetic life can be defined by two complementary propositions.
a) Aesthetic object is sensual, it is seen, heard or animated in mind with sensual shape; it provides pleasure to
human beings with sensual qualities.
b) Aesthetic object is also an object which is thought and watched at the same time. It involves human beings not
because it is nice to senses but also because it includes a meaning and carries a value. The first of these propositions
indicates the source of the word aesthetics, while the second proposition constitutes the foundation of liking
judgement (Bozkurt, 2000).
According to Schiller, the concept of beauty is not just an aesthetic concept but also it has a central significance
in human life as a ontological, existential and psychological concept. For him, beauty is “mandatory condition of
human existence” (Schiller, 1999). Fulfilling this mandatory condition will only be possible with education. The
basic objective of aesthetic education designed by Schiller is to make the individuals of modern age as free
individuals who realized and completed themselves with the education of aesthetics and art. With such an
education, it will be possible to develop both scientific and rational nature of an individual and sensual nature,
feelings, desires and emotions. For him, the function of art and works of art is to put human beings into aesthetic
condition to make him free and to allow him to perceive freedom. Aesthetic education is important for the
civilization as a whole and for the individuals in particular to improve themselves
(Taşdelen& Yazıcı, 2012).
According to Croce, “a feeling without an expression is not different than a soul without a body”. Thus, he
expressed that the intuition and expression are the same single thing which cannot be separated from each other
(Yetkin, 2007).
For people to recognize beauty, to be pleased by beauty and to create beauty, their aesthetical feelings and
preparations should be developed. For Marks, only thing that creates “a musical ear, a sensible eye to the beauty of
forms, in short senses to take human pleasure…” is social and historical practice. Therefore, our eye can perceive
the beauty in the combination of colours and tones, beauty of the geometric shapes and proportions other than the
colour and shape of object. Aesthetic feeling is voluntary, that is, it is not related to monetary accounts and ideas.
But, it doesn’t mean that having aesthetic pleasure, loving a beautiful object is not a passive process lacking all
kinds of practical understanding (Akt. Ziss; 2009, 164).
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Hatice Nilüfer Süzen
As cited by Aykut (2012), the question “what do we understand from aesthetic” is answered by Erzen as follows:
we can understand two things from aesthetic education. The first one is what society understands from aesthetics. It
is the development of sensitivity against the qualities of physical shapes addressing to art, beauty and sense and the
uplifting of the level of liking. This education can be through external environment or media. The second one is the
education of art and culture philosophy within the university level discipline of philosophy
In the aesthetic education of individual, it is necessary to keep loyal to the theories of aesthetics and theory, to
express in a simple and clear manner the relation of variables for conceptualizing aesthetics, to put forward
permanent and constructive changes in their own views of art and artistic theories. The aesthetic education should
include the questioning processes which combine aesthetic analysis and aesthetic interpretation made on the value
and meaning of art.
4. Conclusion
Aesthetic education of society as well as an individual cannot be considered as a special, independent and selfsufficient way of education.
If art education is taken as “aesthetic education”, the first thing to remember is the creation of aesthetic
awareness. However, the education effectiveness of art cannot be limited to the formation of aesthetic awareness. In
the aesthetic education, art has a special role. In fact, many thinkers accept that human beings are a main tool if not
an additional tool.
If getting into the field of aesthetic and aesthetic education which needs to be included within the general
education system means getting into the field of art, then getting into the field of art means getting into the field of
beauty. Modern aesthetics deals with or is involved with beauty in art. However, art should not be limited with the
drawing of appearance and with objects which are beautiful in our world. In art, which is ugly and ordinary can be
recreated and provided that it is drawn well, that is, if the thing to be drawn is ugliness, there should be a beauty in
its drawing. For example, formal structure of Quasimodo creates revulsion for us but the admiration for the skill of
playing of the actor playing Quasimodo in the American movie The Bells of Notre Dame supersedes that revulsion
of the viewers (Kagan,1993).
An object which is meaningful for us and in which we find a meaning is a particularly aesthetic object and a work
of art which is highly aesthetic. The borders of the aesthetics concept exceed the work of art. We make it aesthetic
with our view. Everything is an aesthetic object. We make a vase, a bundle of flower, a pine tree with our view.
To make something aesthetic means to see it with our own eyes. Aesthetic object is both what we see and what
we want to see. That means, aesthetic object is firstly a work of art and more generally any object which we will
want to turn into a work of art (Timuçin, 2011). Each work of art is a cultural product and a cultural place of
meeting for people. Aesthetic measures and rules express the sensitivity of a certain period. These criteria are
expression of a social and historical condition.
Aesthetic value has various meanings for each person or human society. What is a value for a society may not be
a value for another society. Values create an order in human mind in this or that way. Things which are attempted to
be told in a painting of Picasso, who is a real value for a western person, may not mean anything for a person from
Africa. Aesthetics in scientific education generalizes the laws on the aesthetic absorption of the world. These laws
are created in art in a more complete, diverse and direct manner, therefore, aesthetics is emerged as a science
studying the essence and general laws of art and artistic creation.
There are also views that aesthetic absorption of the world would exceed the borders of art, include other aspects
of aesthetic behaviour of man against reality just like including artistic creation. In each case, art has become the
leading subject of aesthetics throughout the history. This is the reason why the basic principles of aesthetics in
scientific education are based on the generalization of artistic practice. However, since each field of art has their
own uniqueness, the laws of aesthetics cannot be based on a single rule. Aesthetics generalizes the designapplication problems put forward by the segmental theory, therefore it questions final analysis process and equips
with methodological principles.
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Language and interpretation of aesthetics in art education
The fact that aesthetic education is a life guide rather than a quality and theoretical knowledge doesn’t only
increase the liking level but also creates positive changes on social life. While aesthetic education makes art more
popular and desirable in society, it is also possible to create positive effects. This should be the purpose of aesthetic
education. With aesthetic education, it should be aimed to enable to put forward the value of aesthetic judgement, to
gainF an expression skill and critical view and to produce knowledge by individuals. Aesthetic education ensures
the raising of creative and constructive individuals who can bear the responsibility to pass the culture to future
generations with aesthetic liking and aesthetic pleasure feelings, who know, learn, protect the culture, who can
express themselves with artistic activities. Modern education of aesthetics has the idea of ensuring that individuals
and society with high aesthetic liking sensitive to the environment they live in through artistic activities, to make
constructive interaction, to reveal artistic product and to satisfy interpretation drives, to make their art lives more
significant. The quality richness, the power of thinking brought by aesthetics to human beings through values is
developed further every stage. This can be called as visual sensitivity or “visual literacy”. Aesthetics education aims
at ensuring multidimensional thinking by individual, to teach that the beauty of what they know and like is not
sufficient. Development of perception and theory skills is the only possible thing with aesthetic education.
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