Critical form: on proceeding as a painter

Abstract

This thesis considers the critical possibilities of aesthetic experience in a contemporary context, particularly in relation to painting. It puts forth an argument for the relevance of painting as a critically engaged means of producing art today. As a ground for the argument I look to Immanuel Kant’s formulation of aesthetic experience as implicitly connected to critical reflection, and propose an extended understanding of how the aesthetic experience of painting might be thought today. There are two distinct parts to this argument. The first concerns producing a contemporary formulation of aesthetic experience, accounting for relevant factors that have influenced art-theoretical interpretations of aesthetics. The second involves positioning this formulation of aesthetic experience in relation to the complex and loaded system of meaning that we might now understand painting to be. I argue for a non-juridical conception of aesthetic judgement, and attendantly for an understanding of criticality as an open, pluralistic space rather than a conclusive, rational one. The aspects of Kantian aesthetics I draw upon are the sensus communis, the aesthetic idea, the symbol as a structural stopping-short and purposiveness without purpose. These ideas, notably excluded from Clement Greenberg’s recourse to Kant, form the basis of a mobilisation of aesthetics for the reading of painting beyond formalism; indeed, emphasising how the aesthetic experience of form might lead to an expanded contemplation of content. I draw upon theorisations of discursive stupidity and wit towards an extended conception of aesthetic experience, and discuss the work of Juan Davila and Martin Kippenberger through the lens of these theories. I argue that painting’s ability to gesture towards an idea, whilst investing it with complexity, is one thing that enables it to open spaces for a renewed contemplation of agreed meanings. As this exegesis outlines an understanding of painting in relation to aesthetic experience, my practical research is undertaken within, and feeds back into that understanding: the relation between painting and critical aesthetics outlined herein acts as a receptive ground for my practice as a painter.