Abstract
Which components are needed to identify an object as an artwork, particularly if it is contemporary art? A variety of factors determining aesthetic judgements have been identified, among them stimulus-related properties such as symmetry, complexity and style, but also person-centred as well as context-dependent variables. We were particularly interested in finding out whether laypersons are at all able to distinguish between pieces of fine art endorsed by museums and works not displayed by galleries and museums. We were also interested in analysing the variables responsible for distinguishing between different levels of artistic quality. We ask untrained (Exp.1) as well as art-trained (Exp.2) people to rate a pool of images comprising contemporary art plus unaccredited objects with regard to preference, originality, ambiguity, understanding and artistic quality. Originality and ambiguity proved to be the best predictor for artistic quality. As the concept of originality is tightly linked with innovativeness, a property known to be appreciated only by further, and deep, elaboration (Carbon, 2011 i-Perception, 2, 708–719), it makes sense that modern artworks might be cognitively qualified as being of high artistic quality but are meanwhile affectively devaluated or even rejected by typical laypersons—at least at first glance.
Highlights
When Joseph Beuys’ famous artwork “Fettecke”1 (1982; Engl. “greasy corner”) was nearly destroyed by a diligent facility manager in 1986, a vivid societal debate emerged on what an artwork is about and how such a work is defined in modern times
We only know that context triggers and modifies aesthetic appreciation (Carbon & Jakesch, 2013; Leder Belke, Oeberst, & Augustin, 2004), for instance when inspecting an unfamiliar object in the context of a museum or art gallery, we assign more aesthetic quality to the targeted entity (Locher, Smith, & Smith, 2001)
We aimed to find out which variables are mainly responsible for assessing the “artistic quality” of ambiguous objects in order to have an idea of what fuels the classification of any aesthetic object into art or non-art
Summary
When Joseph Beuys’ famous artwork “Fettecke” (1982; Engl. “greasy corner”) was nearly destroyed by a diligent facility manager in 1986, a vivid societal debate emerged on what an artwork is about and how such a work is defined in modern times. The aforementioned shortlist of possible influences and “Fettecke” was a conceptual artwork by the German artist and art theorist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) installed in a corner of his “Atelier 3” of the Arts Academy in the city of Düsseldorf. It consisted of a solid pile of 5 kg of butter directly applied to the wall, intended to work as a permanent demonstration object
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