Date: Thu, 14 May 1998
Yea to "Architecture and Sense of Life," by Sherri Tracinski
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
>From Lee M. Sandstead:
>(The subject of an artwork tells us how an artist
>*views* and *understands* reality, but the style
>tells us how an artist *sees* and *organizes* reality.)
I think I understand what Lee was trying to say in the above
statement, but I don't consider it to be precise enough to
convey the full meaning.
Art concretizes an artist's (often implicit) metaphysical value
judgment, but this value judgment has two components: 1) His
evaluation of existence (sense of life) [the subject], and 2)
His evaluation of his own mind (psycho-epistemological sense of
life)[the style].
1) His sense of life contains his evaluation of existence as a
whole, and particular things in it he may either value or
disvalue. In objective art, the mere placement of an object (in
a painting, say) shows that he thinks it is important; the
arrangement of the objects -- foreground vs background, lighted
or shadowed, a cascading organization, etc. -- indicates the
relative value of those objects with regard to one another. The
particular objects are the subject of the painting (or the one
particular object he emphasized the most).
2) His psycho-epistemological sense of life contains his
evaluation of his mind as a whole, and the particular functions
of it he may either value or disvalue. Every representation of
an object (again, in a painting, say) requires at least some
attention to detail. It is the details (and the accuracy) of the
representation that give an insight into his evaluation of his
own mind. It is the relation of the details to one another that
give an insight into which aspects of his mind he values the
most or least. This comprises the style.
One of my favorite paintings is Gerome's "Pygmalion and Galatea"
-- the one with the sculptor passionately kissing a statue he
has created that is in the process of coming alive. The theme is
"a man falling in love with the perfect woman, who he has helped
to bring into existence," though I know some will disagree with
me on this.
The sense of life is contained in the subject, which is boldly
in the forefront and brightly highlighted -- the statue coming
alive. One can surmise that Gerome greatly values art as an
expression of man's creativity.
The psycho-epistemological sense of life is contained in the
style, which is extremely accurate -- the lower portion of the
woman is stark white marble that appears very solid, stiff, and
unyielding; the upper portion of the woman is elegantly curve,
flesh-toned, and yielding to the touch of the sculptor. One can
surmise that Gerome highly values his emotions -- especially
those involving romantic love.
That's just a brief analysis, but I hope it is enough to provide
a good example of the difference between subject and style in
terms of sense of life and psycho-epistemological sense of life,
as the two components of an artist's metaphysical value judgments.
