Week Two Comments

   In week two, we discussed more about the context and assumptions of art. Art is generally assumed to be Western Art. Context for art, museums, were important for determining what was art in 18th century Europe. For example, works in the Louvre were considered "masterpieces." Also, objects that weren't originally intended to be art, such as church altarpieces, became art when taken our of their original context (the church in this case) and placed in a museum.

   We also discussed the three-tiered Platonic philosophy of art - the idea, the actual object, and the representation. Representation was, according to Plato, mimesis - a depiction of external reality, a human "mirror" of reality. Joseph Kosuth's Three and One Chairs exemplifies the Platonic idea perfectly.

     We read an article in Art in Theory by Romanticist Gericault. Gericault's ideas about originality, true genius, and rising above mediocrity embodied the French Academic ideal of art.