Intellectual Aspects of Art

This article will discuss how can art be intellectual – it will discuss the many aspects of “intellectualism” and how I feel that we need to pay more attention to what the three pillars of art are, and to study and understand what a legitimate arts degree should include.

It will also discuss some of the often forgotten aspects of the academic study of art.

Art, Literature and Music are worthy subjects in their own right, but the scholarly study of them has developed a number of fields that includes a higher intellectual focus, namely Philosophy of Art, History of Art and Philosophy of Music.

As the study of Music and Philosophy of Art are a large part of the “arts” degree, they are the main focus here. The other two disciplines are discussed in this article but not included in their full extent due to time constraints.

Scholarly Approaches to Art

As all serious academics, philosophers, artists and critics would agree that no work of art is complete until it is scrutinized by an academic, thus the academic study of art is known as “Art Historiography”.

Philosophy of Art is an approach to the study of art that is centered around the question of “Why do artists make art?” History of Art is an approach to the study of art that includes a wider understanding of art than is possible in purely artistic or aesthetic terms.

It includes such topics as the history of art, the development of artistic styles and ideas, and the role of museums and galleries. Philosophy of Music is an approach to the study of music that focuses on the nature of music, such as the nature of art, the origin of musical instruments and music, and the evolution of musical compositions.

The two main branches of art history are the “historical” approach and the “philosophical” approach.

Historical art history is often regarded as the major “sector” of the subject and involves extensive research and the presentation of well documented and researched works.

It is typically carried out by the form of Art Historians, who are employed by museums and other museums and galleries, or as independent scholars. The same is true for History of Art which tends to be associated with museums and galleries, or Art Historians who have also formed their own teaching staff and individual universities.

The philosophical approach to Art studies is represented by the school of philosophical art history (that may also include aesthetics and other aspects of modernist art) that is more broadly based and often integrates the works of art historical philosophers with the visual works they critique.

Philosophical approaches often work outside of the framework of traditional academic degrees (the bachelors and the masters, or PhD and Masters), so those who opt for this approach may not be qualified to teach at a university.

There are also philosophical approaches that work with the thought of the great Classical thinkers, such as Plato and Aristotle, that can be incorporated into a standard Philosophy of Art course.

The recently developed fields of Philosophy of Music (often abbreviated to “musicology”) and Philosophy of Literature (often abbreviated to “literary studies”) are relatively new and are designed to expand the subject of academic study of art and add depth to the study of it.

The aim of these fields is to provide a better understanding of the conceptual frameworks of artists, art critics and philosophers involved in the analysis and understanding of the art world.

Philosophical approaches to the arts are in some ways a natural extension of the Modernist movement, although these fields are certainly not restricted to art. They extend the study of Art beyond its traditional areas into the cultural and philosophical realms.

But what is intelligent or intelligent art?

The term "intelligent art" was coined by former National Gallery of Australia director Ian Potter in 2003. He said that intelligent art was art that has something important to say about human experience.

There are a range of ways to assess the intelligence of an artwork. While some may think it is enough to consider the "cultural value" of an artwork, I think a more robust way is to compare the pieces with human intelligence.

Let's start by considering how human intelligence is defined. Wikipedia defines intelligence as the mental processes "by which organisms, especially human beings, learn, think, reason, make predictions, and produce predictions"

There are a lot of human intelligence activities that can be seen in an artwork, including how the artwork is organized and presented. These show how the artists have used their brains to create the work.

This type of analysis can be traced back to the work of the great polymath, Joseph Henry.

In 1861 he wrote the "Analytical Dictionary of Psychology". He analysed the brain and discovered the optic nerve and reticular formation were involved in visual perception.

He also described the lateral geniculate nucleus, which has a connection to a part of the brain that controls movement, and provided a mathematical representation of it. He further explored the use of the ear, nose and tongue in smell and hearing and demonstrated that they are interconnected.

He also used his intellect to make discoveries about electricity and magnetism. He built a device to detect electricity in neutral earth with the help of a glass rod heated to extreme temperatures. This device led to the use of the cathode ray tube in television sets and calculators.

The use of technology:

In the collection of the Lehigh University Art Museum is an example of this same "technology" approach to art. "The Museum of the Arab Revolt" is the title of the sculpture.

The artwork consists of two large sheets of paper, each printed with a different wall painting from the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918.

The paper is covered with black ink, and a black patterned piece of textile is folded on top to create the final image. The material to be used in the next step is provided in the corner of the paper, in this case torn scraps of fabric.

There are scrap pieces of thin sheet metal on top, so that the piece can be preserved in a museum or gallery. The pieces were cut in the shape of the bricks from the wall paintings.

The edges of the paper are burned, so that it is more durable. The only thing to be worried about is that the damaged edges may turn a little brittle over time.

The use of this technology helps enhance the piece as a single object.

As technology advances, new technologies are created to help conserve the integrity of artwork, but these choices should be made with great care. There should always be a balance between historical events and the art world.