8.2 The problem of aesthetic judgment

Aesthetic judgment in art criticism is a complex process influenced by personal taste, cultural background, and expert knowledge. It's a balancing act between subjective experiences and attempts to find universal standards for evaluating art's beauty and meaning.

The debate over whether aesthetic principles are universal or culturally relative remains unresolved. This tension reflects the challenges critics face in making judgments about art from different cultures and time periods.

Challenges of Aesthetic Judgment

Complexity and Subjectivity

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• Aesthetic judgments involve evaluating the beauty, quality, meaning, and value of works of art
• Complex undertaking due to the subjective nature of art appreciation
• Influenced by factors like an individual's background, education, emotions, and preconceptions
  • Makes it difficult to arrive at purely objective assessments
• Inherent ambiguity and open-endedness of much art leaves room for a multiplicity of interpretations and judgments

Contextual Considerations

• Challenges in making aesthetic judgments include accounting for personal taste, cultural influences, the artist's intentions, historical context, and the artwork's formal qualities and symbolism
• Judging avant-garde, controversial, or culturally unfamiliar art can be particularly challenging
  • Requires openness to new forms of creative expression
  • Examples: Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain", Damien Hirst's shark in formaldehyde

Expertise, Subjectivity, and Culture in Aesthetic Judgments

The Role of Expertise

• Art experts, such as critics, curators, and scholars, are often seen as having more refined and informed aesthetic judgments
  • Due to their specialized knowledge and experience
• However, expertise is not infallible
  • Expert judgments can still be shaped by personal biases, ideological commitments, and prevailing cultural attitudes
  • Example: Clement Greenberg's championing of Abstract Expressionism

The Inescapability of Subjectivity

• Subjectivity is inescapable in aesthetic judgments
  • Individuals bring their own unique set of experiences, emotions, associations and preferences to bear on interpreting art
• Cultural context profoundly shapes aesthetic sensibilities and value systems
  • What one culture considers great art may be seen as strange or lacking merit by another
  • Example: Traditional African masks vs. Western portraiture
• Cross-cultural aesthetic judgments require an understanding and appreciation of different cultural traditions, symbols, styles and philosophies of art

Universal Aesthetic Standards: A Debate

Arguments for Universal Principles

• Some philosophers and critics argue for the existence of universal aesthetic principles that can be used to judge art across cultures and time periods
  • Examples: Harmony, balance, skill and expressiveness
• Attempts have been made to ground universal aesthetic judgments in common features of human perceptual systems or in archetypal meanings and emotional responses

The Case for Cultural Relativism

• Others contend that notions of beauty and artistic value are always relative to specific cultural frameworks
  • There can be no absolute, timeless standards
• The diversity of the world's artistic traditions and the continuous innovation of new styles and genres complicate the search for universal standards
  • Examples: Chinese landscape painting, Cubism, Art Brut
• The debate remains unresolved, with some seeking a middle ground that acknowledges both culturally specific and more widely shared aspects of aesthetic experience

Aesthetic Judgment and Art Interpretation

The Interplay of Judgment and Meaning

• Aesthetic judgments are closely intertwined with the interpretation of an artwork's meaning
  • Assessment of value often depends on grasping the artist's intentions and the work's significance
• Evaluation involves considering a work's originality, skill, emotional impact, and its place within a wider tradition or the artist's oeuvre
  • These factors inform overall aesthetic judgments

Interpretive Frameworks and Shifting Judgments

• Different interpretive frameworks can yield contrasting evaluations and judgments of the same works of art
  • Examples: Formalism, expressionism, postmodernism
• In some cases, an artwork's unsettling message or unorthodox style may be central to its meaning and value
  • Complicates straightforward aesthetic judgments
  • Example: Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Son"
• Aesthetic judgments can shift over time as interpretations evolve in light of new information, cultural developments, and changes in prevailing artistic and social values