In my opinion, I have to side with Romanticism as the most plausible way of interpreting art. Formalism just does not sound plausible and I don't believe art should be strictly based upon purely visual aspects of the piece of work. Romanticism not only seems more plausible, but makes a lot more sense to me personally when I interpret art. Art should simply be interpreted by the viewer and should not be strictly defined. Art I believe is an expression of emotion or passion shaped into a form of a painting, drawing, or any other form of art. So, if the way art is created is an expression of emotion or passion, the way it is interpreted should be similar to the way the artist created it.
Explanatory Breadth - Romanticism has more explanatory breadth than Formalism. Formalism states that the interpretation of art is based upon rational insight and strictly based upon analyzing the abstract form of the work. Romanticism states that formalism goes beyond the rational insight and tunes into more non rational emotions and isn't based solely upon the abstract form. Romanticism is more viable when interpreting all forms of art, since a lot of art isn't solely based on simple abstract forms and rational pictures. A lot of art now a days is more than just portraits and drawings of real objects; it's more irrational forms of art and art that is up for more interpretation that previous decades of art.
Explanatory Depth - I believe Formalism has a bit more explanatory depth than Romanticism. Although Romanticism does explain more types of art; formalism does go in more depth when it comes to art that it allows one to interpret. Formalism goes more in depth to interpret the art because of the fact it looks at color, shape, texture, style and other perceptual aspects of art. Romanticism is more of an interpretation depending upon individual ideas and emotion.
Simplicity - Romanticism has more simplicity than Formalism. Romanticism allows the viewer of the art more freedom to interpret the art rather than formalism. Formalism isn't as simple in the fact that art interpretation contains more aspects when interpreting the abstract form of the art. Although romanticism requires more critical thinking, the concept of Romanticism is more simple and isn't as straight forward as Formalism.
Conservatism - Romanticism has more conservatism than Formalism does. I believe in the generation we live in today, the majority of art is strictly up to interpretation of the viewer which sides more with Romanticism. Therefore, if the majority of art has to be interpreted by the viewer by not limiting the viewer to the rational, as well as allows them to express the non rational emotions...the concept of Romanticism has been adopted a lot more in today's society. Art in this generation still contains some strictly abstract figures which formalism comes into better use, but not as prominent as it used to be in passed generations. Therefore, since more art is more about the irrational now, formalism isn't as conservative to our common beliefs.
1. Romanticism and Formalism are the most plausible explanations of the interpretation of art.
2. Romanticism has more explanatory breadth, simplicity and conservatism, whereas Formalism has more Explanatory depth.
3. Therefore, Romanticism is the most plausible explanation of the interpretation of art.
You have a very great post and you explain in very great details but one of your arguments i disagree with your argument that romanticism is more simplicity. formalism would be a better arguments due to the fact that it has less assumptions. formalism is more of the basics of art including, the viewing the beauty of the art while romanticism has more of a wide range of things including art
ReplyDeleteCory,
ReplyDeleteStrong effort overall. I felt that your thoughts were organized and fairly well presented. I do, however, have a few critiques. For one, you seem to reference the visual arts exclusively, and neglect to include the interpretations of these two views as they relate to other creative expressions such as music, theater, writing, etc. I also find myself disagreeing with your claim that romanticism is more conservative than formalism. We live in a society which values convention a great deal, and this is evident in how we are presented with the concept of our art throughout our lives. People are often first introduced to art in school, and these courses in self expression focus heavily on form and structure, rather than emotional expression. If anything, I would argue that both stances are equally as prominent in our society today. Again, I found your piece thoughtful and well defended. Good work.
Ciao,
Will