Understanding the essence of art requires diverse philosophical approaches. By exploring shifts in the concept of art—such as mimesis, expressionism, formalism, and institutionalism—we illuminate the importance of defining art.
Aesthetics, a branch of philosophy that discusses concepts and theories concerning art and aesthetic experience, makes the question of defining art crucial. Reviewing the history of aesthetics reveals diverse approaches to understanding the nature and value of art. Initially, Aristotle’s theory of mimesis—viewing art as an imitation of nature—was dominant. In his Poetics, Aristotle saw art as one way humans understand and experience the world, arguing that imitation could achieve catharsis. This theory of mimesis presupposes a theory of transparent representation, where the object and its representation must resemble each other.
However, Romanticism, which emerged in the late 18th century, allowed for the artist’s original emotional expression and distorted representation, leading to the decline of mimesis. Romanticism emphasized that art is a creative act beyond simple representation, valuing the artist’s subjective experience and inner emotions. Art was no longer perceived as a mere imitation of nature but as an original work revealing the artist’s individuality and creativity. Consequently, a new theory was needed to recognize Romantic art, which did not require imitation as an essential condition, as legitimate art.
In the early 20th century, Collingwood proposed the theory of expression, defining the artist’s genuine ideas or emotions as the condition for art. He argued that a true work of art is a mental object that need not be constructed through physical materials. Collingwood viewed art not as merely imitating the external world, but as a process of expressing emotions arising from the artist’s inner self, through which the audience gains empathy and understanding. Around the same time, formalism developed, emphasizing the inherent form of the work itself. Bell’s formalism regarded as art only those works that evoked aesthetic emotion through a ‘meaningful form’ that could be intuitively identified and was indefinable, accessible only to critics with artistic sensibility.
When Duchamp’s Fountain, an exhibited urinal, gained recognition as an artwork in the mid-20th century, two countertheories emerged to explain why an ordinary urinal, formally indistinguishable from it, was not considered art. The first was Waits’s theory of the indefinability of art. He argued that art cannot be defined because visual art, theater, literature, and music are so heterogeneous that no common element unites them. Weitz represents the view that existing theories on defining art, while appearing to take the form of propositions, are in fact pseudo-propositions whose truth or falsity cannot be determined, rendering the very discussion of defining art unnecessary.
The second is Dickie’s institutional theory. This defines an artifact as a work of art if it is granted candidate status for appreciation by individuals belonging to the social institution known as the art world. Dicky’s view is a classificatory theory suggesting that anything passing through certain procedures and conventions can be considered art. According to institutional theory, artworks are defined within an institutional framework formed through the interaction of diverse social actors like artists, critics, and viewers. This perspective posits that art is essentially a social construct, and its definition is not fixed but can vary according to changing social and cultural contexts.
These discussions represent attempts to find a common essence among artworks and to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for art. Such philosophical debates concerning the definition of art extend beyond mere academic interest, profoundly influencing actual artistic practice and appreciation. Attempts to clarify the essence of art play a crucial role in understanding what artists should pursue through their creative activities, what criteria critics should apply when evaluating works, and what attitude viewers should adopt when appreciating artworks. Therefore, philosophical inquiry into the definition of art is an essential endeavor for deeply understanding its various facets and exploring the essence of human experience through art.
