Guernica

            Monday September 19^th was another freakishly warm day for the time of year. I don’t recall ever wearing shorts this deep into September.

            On my way to class, a little after noon, I stopped at a light and heard someone call my name. It was Rosalind Rundle, waiting for a bus. I told her I was on my way to my Aesthetics class, but informed her that I was also taking Canadian Poetry with George Elliot Clarke. She recalled that her dad, Paul Valliere had mentioned him to her. She said that she might come to audit the class.

            We started with a review of last Friday’s class, in the form of an iclicker question. His was my first time having an iclicker with which to participate.

The subject of our aesthetics lecture this time was, “Categories of Art”.

How to group artworks?

Kendall L. Walton thinks categories matter.

A category of art is individuated by a medium. An artistic medium is a means by which an artist intentionally communicates content.

Walton thinks we should categorize art by the artistic medium and not by the physical, vehicular medium. So, for example, not the paint but rather the brush strokes. Categorization then is about intentional activity.

            Frank Sibley says that aesthetic concepts are not condition governed by taste. He would say that Picasso’s Guernica is dynamic.

            Walton says that the aesthetic properties of Picasso’s Guernica depend on the category we place it in. The category also depends on the aesthetic properties.

            Consider the word “comment”. Now consider the language category of English in which a comment is a remark. But now consider the language category of French in which the word “comment” means “how”.  Interpretation always depends upon category. There is a direct parallel between linguistic meaning and artistic meaning.

            He projected on the screen the duck-rabbit optical illusion. If we see the duck, we write the rabbit’s nose off.

            A category has within it specifications of what is standard to it, what does not belong and variables.

            Guernica as a painting contains intentional actions such as brush strokes that are standard to it. Dynamism and emotion comes through.

            If we think of “Guernica” as a category in itself, then the standard of a Guernica is what looks like a Guernica. He then projected the image of an ice sculpture in the shape of Guernica. Guernica as Guernica becomes cold and bland because all Guernicas look like it.

            Walton insists that categorization is essential because it’s the only way we get the meaning from the artwork. We don’t group artworks by vehicular mediums but by artistic mediums because activity determines meaning.