Open AccessArt and its History
Author(s) -
Risto Pitkänen
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the nordic journal of aesthetics/the nordic journal of aesthetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.145
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2000-9607
pISSN - 2000-1452
DOI - 10.7146/nja.v21i39.3003
Subject(s) - historicism , hegelianism , perspective (graphical) , contemporary art , art , alliance , history of art , art history , point (geometry) , philosophy , aesthetics , literature , epistemology , history , visual arts , performance art , archaeology , geometry , mathematics , architecture
The paper argues that something is art only if (i) it belongs to aspecial kind of internal history and (ii) needs to be understood and appreciatedin the light of such history. This goes against both the traditional viewthat art has a timeless, ahistorical essence and the historicist view that therecan be no ahistorical perspective for understanding art. The paper draws onHegel’s view that art needs to be understood through its history, but rejectsthe idea that the history of art has an end in the double sense of a goal and anend point. It also rejects Arthur Danto’s Hegel-inspired claim that the ahistoricalessence of art is revealed at the end of its history and opens the door to anatural alliance between philosophers of art and art historians.