This document discusses representational art and its history and status. It defines representational art as art that depicts something easily recognizable. It provides examples such as a painting of a New York City street scene. Representational art has its origins in prehistoric figurines and carvings and was the dominant form of art throughout history. In modernism, there was a move toward more abstract and experimental art, though representational art remains popular among viewers and thriving today. Theories around the value and purpose of representational art are also examined.

1. ISSUES ON THE “BEAUTIFUL”:
ART AS REPRESENTATION
Presented by:
Shaina Mavreen D. Villaroza
Philosophy 1N

2. WHAT IS REPRESENTATIONAL ART?
 The word "representational," means that the work
depicts something easily recognized by most people.
 The value of art lies, not with any ‘aesthetic’ qualities
of the artwork itself (perceptual richness, natural
beauty etc.);
 nor with any ‘formal’ features the work possesses (the
intrinsic properties of ‘form’, ‘balance’, ‘harmony’ etc.)
 nor with the emotions the work evokes or possesses
intrinsically.
 But rather with what a work of art can teach us. This
could be termed cognitivism: a work of art is about
thoughts .

3. ART INFORMS US BY:
 illuminating our experience
 revealing truths’ in ways other media can’t
 it reveals a ‘vision’. It shows us a version of the
world that is particular to the artist, unique to
them, but which we can ourselves appreciate
 representing authentically.

4.  To represent authentically, perhaps art must have a
certain realism.
 Consider the next three pictures.

8. EXAMPLE OF REPRESENTATIONAL ART
 Leon Dolice - Third Avenue,
 depicts a street scene in New York City.
 You can see a street, an automobile and lots of
buildings - one of which is only found in New York
City.

9. THIRD AVENUE BY LEON DOLICE
This etching is representational art.

10. ABSTRACT (NON-REPRESENTATIONAL)
 Franz Kline (Abstract Expressionist artist) - New
York, New York.
 It's not a scene of New York City. There are no
identifiable objects or people within. In fact, one is
left free to interpret whatever one wishes about this
piece.

11. FRANZ KLINE, NEW YORK, N.Y.
This painting is entirely
non-representational.

12. ORIGIN/HISTORY OF REPRESENTATIONAL ART
 Started many millennia ago with Late
Paleolithic figurines and carvings.
 Example: Venus of Willendorf - while not too
terribly realistic, is clearly meant to show the
figure of a woman.

13. VENUS OF WILLENDORF
She was created around
25,000 years ago, and is
here mentioned as an
excellent example of
early representational
art.
Origin/History of Representational
Art

14.  Throughout our history as art-creating
humans, most art has been representational.
 Even when art was symbolic, or non-figurative, it
was usually representative of something.
 Abstract (non-representational) art is a relatively
recent invention, and didn't evolve until the early
20th-century.
Origin/History of Representational
Art

15. PRESENT STATUS OF REPRESENTATIONAL
ART
 Thriving
 More viewer-friendly to the vast majority of
people than abstract or conceptual art
 This is not to say that abstract art isn't a thing
of beauty
 We humans are compelled
to understand things and use words in an
attempt to do so

16. OVERVIEW
 Modernism promoted originality, &
 experimentation, anti-realism,
individualism and a stress on the cerebral
rather than emotive aspects.
 Postmodernism renounces mimesis
altogether.
 free-wheeling creations constructed of a
language that largely points to itself

17. REPRESENTATIONAL THEORIES IN HISTORY
PLATO AND REALITY
 Plato’s account in Book X of his ‘Republic’
 because art was merely a ‘copy of a copy’
(represented a reality which was itself only a
pale representation of the true reality of
Forms), it could not be regarded as ‘truth-
functional’ and thus had no place in a ‘well run’
society.
 Platonic view: art merely ‘copies’ ( mimesis ) the
world badly.

18. REPRESENTATIONAL THEORIES IN HISTORY
ARISTOTLE AND MIMESIS
• Aristotle: disagrees. For him, art had the
capacity to:
- Be morally educative (Homer, Greek Tragedy
reinforce our view of the virtues
- Represent reality (and truths about it) in a way
that other mediums could not (the ability to
reveal universals, confront us with timeless
beauty etc.)

19. EVEN IF ART INFORMS US, IS THAT WHY WE
VALUE IT AS ART?
 Valuing art in terms of its cognitive value means
that the artwork itself – both its aesthetic and its
formal and its emotional qualities – must be
disregarded.
 Yet this is unacceptable, since if we are going to
provide an adequate account of why we value
art, we need to explain aesthetic, formal and
emotional qualities. ‘All Art aspires to the condition
of music’, or ‘Art for art’s sake’!

20. END.