Sztuka jako wyraz świadomości artysty

• Authors: Janusz Zagrodzki

Title variants

EN

Art As An Expression Of The Artist’s Awareness

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Considerations upon the awareness that previously had been identified as the power of God's creation, a universal mind that binds all terrestrial matters together, are the source of an ancient thought. The term conceptualism — conceptus, defining a thought, a concept, an imagination—was inherited from the Latin, but as an idea it emerged in philosophical discussions long before Socrates. The idea of conceptual perception may be found in Plato's philosophy; the definition of creative awareness was not, however, precisely defined by him. It was only Aristotle who assumed that a condition for art to exist is “a permanent disposition capable of producing something with reason”. This direction of research was undertaken by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, one of the first philosophers examining consciousness, the author of the treatise entitled “Philosophy of Art”. The power of Schelling's thought was an emphasis on using symbols in art. Confronting hidden meanings with the literality of concepts based on tangible aspects of knowledge mean that his opinions are still of interest for researchers. The concept of a self-awareness we owe to the establishments of René Descartes. His principle “I think therefore I am” did not remove and in fact even highlighted the doubts that arise during creative activity. What is contemporary art?— a discipline which attempts to understand the power of the human mind, which enables artists to use the knowledge they possess in action. It is an inborn predisposition, or perhaps it is a disposition to produce something material with a thought and therefore it is conceptual in nature. The values in art result from the essence of a message, and the methods of transmitting and receiving are, in a natural way, linked to the intellectual process and it does not matter, which form of the ‘conceptualisation’ of the world the artist chose. Art understood as a concept is often identified as utopian. Utopia, on the other hand, is most often understood as an intentional attitude that exists in one’s consciousness, an idea which cannot be realised. The question arises: what is an artwork completed as an artistic fact. This apparent antinomy between the notions of reality, utopia and concept in art results from an assumption that something is possible and other things are not and that all arguments depend on the assumed point of reference. It is often claimed in colloquial sentences that a project turned out to be utopian. But what does it mean? Can art be utopian? Has any art program ever been fully completed? Can ideas stemming from one’s artistic statement, in their full complexity, demanding a lot of harmonious circumstances, ever be realised? So called utopian or conceptual thought is the basis of all meaningful art achievements, contrary to intentions thought to be realistic, which by their very down-to-earth nature, lack fantasy and therefore have little in common with art. The emergence of an art concept is parallel to the possibilities of its realisation. Not sooner does art exist for real, then as a result a conflict between creative ideas and changing reality appears. Sometimes artistic objectives do not develop further beyond the project stage, sometimes they turn into concrete objects, events or processes. The fact that their incarnations exist, does not determine the meanings. The essence of artistic work is to sustain the idea created. If it takes the form of a registered project then it automatically turns into a tangible object, an item, a phenomenon which can be a base for further actions. So, when the artist questions the rules of the surrounding reality, it is not a conceptual utopia that emerges, but new realities.

Keywords

EN

CONTEMPORARY ART; CONCEPTUAL ART; CONCEPTUALISM

• Publisher: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku
• Journal: Sztuka i Dokumentacja
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 119-122

Contributors

author

Janusz Zagrodzki