A Theory of Art

Author: Zhang Xiaoyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: In the second section, "Artists," we discuss the meaning of art and its interaction with society and life. In this second section, we will examine the art creation process and the creator's perspective embedded in the style of art works from the third chapter, "The Soul of the Artist," we will focus on the psychological activities unique to artists as a group of art creators compared to non-artists. In the fourth chapter, we will primarily analyze the significance of the unique artistic personality of individual artists within the artist group to their artistic career.
Section: Artists as the Creative Subject
1. What is an Artist?
In contemporary Western art, the great synthesizer of art history, E.H. Gombrich, believed: "There is no such thing as art in reality, only artists." By this, Gombrich meant that what is called art is reflected in the artist and the works they create, and without the artist and their creation of art works, there would be no art itself. Art is, in fact, the history of the relationship between artists and the art works they create. Gombrich emphasized the important role of the artist as the subject of artistic creation in this sociocultural phenomenon.
What is an artist? An artist is a general term for the creators of art works. The origin of human art has undergone a rather long historical process, emerging from the historical development of human social practice. In early artistic practices, practical value preceded aesthetic value. Later, after an extended historical process, professional artists began to appear, so professional artists are a result of social division of labor at a certain historical stage. As a social group, artists are ordinary yet special members of the human community. When examining the differences between the artist group and other social groups, the first consideration is how artists observe, interpret, and grasp the world.
In his preface to A Critique of Political Economy, Marx said: "The whole, when it appears in the mind as a thought whole, is the product of a thinking mind, which grasps the world in its own unique way, a way that is different from the artistic, religious, practical-spiritual, and theoretical modes of grasping the world." Here, Marx pointed out the four main ways humans grasp the world: practical-spiritual, theoretical, religious, and artistic.
We know that the same thing, when observed and interpreted by people from different perspectives, angles, and methods, reveals different aspects and properties. For example, "rain" is originally a meteorological phenomenon. A farmer, when seeing rain, will observe the amount of rainfall, consider whether it will lead to a harvest or a famine, and take measures to avoid harm or gain practical benefits. A meteorologist, when observing rain, will focus on the movement trends of high-altitude air currents and make data-driven analyses to explain the causes and consequences of meteorological changes, clarifying its fundamental laws. A religious believer, when seeing rain, may interpret it as the will of the divine, a punishment for human sins or a response to their own prayers for goodness. A poet, when viewing rain, may appreciate it as a beautiful sight and compose lines such as "Apricot blossoms and spring rain in Jiangnan," "Rain trickling outside the curtain, spring's essence fades," or "Listening to spring rain on the small tower all night."
In the process of observing rain, the farmer approaches it from a practical angle, using it as an object of utility in real life. The purpose of observing this natural phenomenon is to determine whether it is useful. The farmer's attitude toward rain is shaped by whether it meets their needs. The farmer's grasp of rain adopts the practical-spiritual mode of grasping the world. The meteorologist's attitude toward rain, however, is entirely objective and rational. (Excerpted from pages 90–92)