art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

, formalism is the study of art by analyzing and comparing form and

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

. Its discussion also includes the way objects are made and their purely visual or material aspects. In painting, formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape, texture, and other perceptual aspects rather than content, meaning, or the historical and social context. At its extreme, formalism in art history posits that everything necessary to comprehending a work of art is contained within the work of art. The context of the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, that is, its conceptual aspect is considered to be external to the artistic medium itself, and therefore of secondary importance.

History

The historical origin of the modern form of the question of aesthetic formalism is usually dated to

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

and the writing of his third Critique where Kant states: "Every form of the objects of sense is either ''figure'' (''Gestalt'') or ''play'' (''Spiel''). In the latter case it is either play of figures or the mere play of sensations. The charm (''Reiz'') of colors... may be added, but the delineations (''Zeichnung'') in the... composition (''Komposition'')... constitute the proper object of the pure judgment of taste." The philosopher Donald Crawford has summarized Kant's position stating: "Thus, for Kant, form consists of the spatial... organization of elements: figure, shape, or delineation... In the parts of the ''Critique of Judgment'' in which form is emphasized as the essential aspect of beauty, Kant is consistently a pure formalist."

Contemporary definition

Nick Zangwill has defined formalism in art as referring to those properties "that are determined solely by sensory or physical properties—so long as the physical properties in question are not relations to other things and other times." The philosopher and architect Branko Mitrovic (philosopher) has defined formalism in art and architecture as "the doctrine that states that the aesthetic qualities of works of visual art derive from the visual and spatial properties." According to the observation that works of art can in general contain formal properties and nonformal properties, the philosopher Nick Zangwill has delineated three types of formalism as they are encountered at the turn of the 21st century. First, Zangwill identifies ''extreme formalists'' who think "that all works of art are purely formal works—where a work is purely formal if all its aesthetic properties are formal aesthetic properties," then he defines ''anti-formalist'' thinkers as those who "think that no works of art have formal aesthetic properties."Zangwill 2001, p. 84. The third type which Zangwill identifies as representing the transition of the philosophy of aesthetics into the 21st century is that of ''moderate formalism'', where its principal exponents defend the principle "that all the aesthetic properties of works of art in a select class are formal, and second, that although many works of art outside that class have nonformal aesthetic properties, many of those works also have important formal aesthetic properties that must not be ignored." The philosopher Michalle Gal has offered a moderate version of formalism, entitled "Deep Formalism", which is a symbolic formalism based on philosophical aestheticism. The artwork is defined by her as deep form: "a form steeped in content that cannot be extracted from it. Artistic content, since it has no existence or sense apart from the form, cannot actually be referred to, other than speculatively. The content seals the form in an opaque, non-reflective, productive symbol." Here she introduces a broad concept of symbol, an opaque-productive symbol: one that is not transparent to preconceived or predetermined referents and meanings, but rather produces new ones.

Uses in art history

A formal analysis is an academic method in

and criticism for analyzing works of

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

: "In order to perceive style, and understand it, art historians use 'formal analysis'. This means they describe things very carefully. These descriptions, which may include subjective vocabulary, are always accompanied by illustrations, so that there can be no doubt about what exists objectively".Review by: Clemency Chase Coggins of ''The Uses of Style in Archaeology'' edited by Margaret W. Conkey and Christine A. Hastorf, p. 233, ''Journal of Field Archaeology'', Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1992), pp. 232–34, Maney Publishing
JSTOR
/ref>

Formalism in Other Disciplines

Formalism (literature) Formalism is a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with structural purposes of a particular text. It is the study of a text without taking into account any outside influence. Formalism rejects or sometimes simply ...

* Formalism (music) *

Formalism (philosophy) The term ''formalism'' describes an emphasis on form over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or philosophy. A practitioner of formalism is called a ''formalist''. A formalist, with respect to some discipline, holds that there is no transc ...

* New Formalism *

Progressive music Progressive music is music that attempts to expand existing stylistic boundaries associated with specific music genre, genres of music. The word comes from the basic concept of ":wiktionary:progress, progress", which refers to advancements thr ...

Russian formalism Russian formalism was a school of literary theory in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s. It includes the work of a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars, such as Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Vladimir Propp, Boris Eikhenbaum ...

Topics Related to Formalism (art)

Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

Josef Albers Josef Albers ( , , ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and Visual arts education, educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States. Born in 1888 in Bottrop, Westp ...

* Color field painting * Elements of art * Geometric abstraction *

Hard-edge painting Hard-edge painting (also referred to as Hard Edge or Hard-edged) is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas. Color areas often consist of one unvarying color. The Hard-edge painting style is related to Geometric abstra ...

Lyrical Abstraction Lyrical abstraction arose from either of two related but distinct art movement, trends in Post-war Modernist painting: * European ''Abstraction Lyrique'': a movement that emerged in Paris, with the French art critic Jean José Marchand being cr ...

Minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

* Op Art * Post-modernism * Post-painterly abstraction * Washington Color School

Sources

* Bell, Clive. ''Art.'' New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers. 1914.

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

* Denis, Maurice. 'Definition of Neo-Traditionism.' ''Art and Criticism.'' August 1890. * Greenberg, Clement. "Towards a Newer Laocoön." Partisan Review, 7 (July-August 1940): 296-310.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Formalism (Art) Aesthetics Visual arts theory Art history Modern art Formalism (aesthetics)