Abstract
AbstractThis paper considers whether Kant’s aesthetics withstands the challenge of conceptual art. I begin by looking at two competing views of conceptual art by recent philosophers, before settling on an ‘inclusive’ view of the form: conceptual art includes both ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ non-perceptual art (NPA). I then set out two kinds of conceptual complexity that I argue are implicated by all aesthetic judgements of art (as art) on Kant’s view: the concept of art itself, and the idea the work is meant to express (dependent beauty and aesthetic ideas, respectively). I go on to demonstrate the applicability of Kant’s aesthetics to conceptual art by considering two works by Lawrence Weiner, which I take to be a work of work of weak and strong NPA respectively.
Highlights
This article considers whether Kant’s aesthetics withstands the challenge of conceptual art
I take conceptual art rather than some other, more recent, form of contemporary art as my focus because conceptual art is widely taken to be explicitly motivated by hostility towards aesthetic approaches to art
Osborne understands conceptual art as not so much another form of art, on a par with any other such form, as an attempt to transform the very nature of art, as understood by aesthetic theory – a fortiori modernist aesthetics – altogether. (Osborne 2002: 18)
Summary
This article considers whether Kant’s aesthetics withstands the challenge of conceptual art.
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