Ling Yaoji
Abstract: As a discipline, art is independent of aesthetics, and it is inextricably linked with aesthetics and various arts. However, only by distinguishing art from aesthetics and various schools of art in terms of research objects and research methods can art have independent value and broad development prospects.
Keywords: aesthetics; Art research; Category art
China Library Classification Number: J02 Document Identification Number: A
In China's discipline classification, the first-level discipline of art includes eight two disciplines, including art (with the same name as the first-level discipline), fine arts, musicology, design art, drama and drama, dance, film and radio and television art. The "art" in the title of this article refers to two disciplines art, and "quasi-art" refers to the other seven two disciplines, namely, art, music and design art, except for art and. Only by distinguishing art from aesthetics and various schools of art in terms of research objects and research methods can art have independent value and broad development prospects.
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Since the mid-1990s, the State Council Academic Degrees Committee listed art as two disciplines, art has made great progress in China. In China, a number of colleges and universities have obtained authorization points for doctoral degrees in art, and hundreds of colleges and universities have obtained authorization points for master's degrees in art, and art has also become a national key discipline. However, behind the prosperity of the discipline construction of art, there are also profound hidden worries: the vague understanding of the discipline orientation and research object of art has seriously restricted the development of art.
The first-class discipline art and two disciplines art are different levels of disciplines, and the latter is only a part of the former. Any kind of art research belongs to the first-class discipline art research, but it is not necessarily two disciplines art research. However, the overlapping of the names of two disciplines at different levels easily leads people to have a vague understanding of the research objects of the two disciplines, equate the art with the art, and lack conscious understanding of the discipline orientation of the two disciplines. The main manifestations are as follows: first, although the graduate tutors in the art discipline have artistic research results, they lack or even have research results in this discipline, that is, art in two disciplines, which is unlikely to exist in other disciplines. Scholars who have not written art papers are unlikely to apply to become graduate tutors of art majors. Scholars who have not written an art paper but only other art papers, even those whose research fields are slightly related to art, naturally apply to become graduate tutors in art.
Secondly, most of the thesis topics of art graduate students are not art, which is rare in genre art. It is impossible for an art graduate student to do a thesis on musicology. It is impossible for a graduate student of design art to write a thesis on dance, and it is impossible for a graduate student of drama to write a thesis on film. However, art graduate students may do papers on art and design, film science, radio and television art, music science, drama and traditional Chinese opera.
Thirdly, there is a general tendency to confuse art with category art in the application of degree authorization points in art. Many art colleges and universities regard art as a new discipline growth point in addition to applying for degree authorization points in their own disciplines. The Academy of Fine Arts can not apply for a degree authorization point in musicology except for the degree authorization points in fine arts and design arts. Music colleges can't apply for degrees in fine arts except musicology. Drama colleges can't apply for the degree authorization point of film science except drama and drama degree authorization points. However, they may all be authorized points for applying for art degrees. Because these subjects are all related to art. However, people often overlook the important differences between them. Fine arts or musicology majors in other universities are weak if they declare their respective disciplines separately. In order to strengthen their own strength, they joined hands to apply for the art discipline. This practice is actually to regard art as a simple patchwork of several categories of art. If the above phenomenon is left unchecked, we can't consciously distinguish between art research and non-art research, so that the former is submerged and covered by the latter, then our art research is likely to become "art research without art research".
Without a clear and unique research object, art as a discipline cannot exist. Of course, the research object of a subject is not static, it will change constantly. Determining the research object of a subject depends on how the subject was formed and how it developed in the future.
There have been many discussions about the formation of art. We only make a simple investigation from the perspective of the relationship between art and genre art. Art was born at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. The symbol of its birth is the German aesthetician and psychologist Max? 1906 published the book Aesthetics and General Art by Dessoir. The general art here is what we now call two disciplines art, and the qualifier "general" is to distinguish it from special art, which is what we call category art.
The concept of "general art" comes from the aesthetic viewpoint of German scholar H.Hettner in19th century. His main works are Opposing Speculative Aesthetics and Modern Drama. He sharply criticized Hegel and his successor Vischer (Fisher tried to establish the aesthetic system of literature according to the basic principles of Hegel's aesthetics in his six-volume Aesthetics or Science of Beauty). Hertner believes that art, as a social phenomenon, is "the perceptual expression of our perceptual ideas, feelings and reflections". Art does not exist to create beauty at all, and the purpose of art is not to appreciate beauty at all. 1903, H.Spetzer's masterpiece about Hertner was published, which played an important role in the formation of the concept of "general art".
The general art that Dessoir hopes to establish is different from the special art, and the difference between them, or the difference between art and genre art, mainly lies in the research object. The relationship between art and genre art is general and special. According to the research results of various art studies, art studies comprehensively and integrally, and studies the common problems of art; Genre art is under the guidance of art theory, studying a specific art category and studying the special problems of a certain art category. De Soyt defined the research topic of art as: the essence and value of art, the essence of artistic works, artistic creation, the origin of art, the classification and function of art, and the premise, methods and purpose of exploring musicology, fine arts and other special art studies in epistemology.
Emile, Dessoir's main follower? Emile Utitz wrote "Principles of General Art" in two volumes, 1 published in 19 14, and expounded the object, nature, characteristics, laws and classification of general art; The second volume, published in 1920, discusses artistic works, artists and general artistic issues. Utitz supports the comprehensive study of art and defines the subject of art as: the definition of art, the experience of art, the enjoyment of art, the significance of artistic beauty, works of art and artists.
It can be seen that in the process of the birth of art, the difference between art and genre art has been clearly expounded. Judging from the formation of the discipline of art, its research object is simply four words: general art or general art.
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The difference between art and genre art is also thoroughly understood by the pioneers of art research in China. Zong Baihua and Ma are the pioneers of China's art research. Zong Baihua began to study art in the 1920s. He is a direct witness to the birth and formation of world art. 1920 went to study in Germany and studied in the philosophy department of Frankfurt University. At that time, under the banner of "Aesthetics and General Art", Dessoir, who launched the movement of independence from art to aesthetics, taught in the Philosophy Department of Berlin University. In order to be familiar with Dessoir's academic thoughts, Zong Baihua transferred to the Philosophy Department of Berlin University on 192 1 to study aesthetics and historical philosophy, which was directly influenced by the academic atmosphere in the process of artistic independence.
1925 After returning to China, Zong Baihua taught in the philosophy department of Southeast University (1928 renamed Central University). 1926- 1928 wrote two complete handouts, Art and Art (Speech), and opened the course of aesthetics and art for the first time in China universities. "These two courses were not only the first course offered by the Department of Philosophy of China University at that time, but also the first course offered by the Department of Literature, Art and Architecture. These two courses last until 1948. " See Volume 4 (Postscript) of Complete Works of Zong Baihua, Anhui Education Press, 1994, p. 757. Art, as its name implies, is a discipline that studies art. Then, can all research on art be called art? Zong Baihua's answer isno. This question involves the difference between art and genre art. Art studies "focus on the general problems of art, and its ultimate goal is to get a science that includes all arts, so it is ordinary, not special (such as music and pictures)." See the Complete Works of Zong Baihua, Volume 1, Anhui Education Press, 1994, Page 51/.
After Zong Baihua, Ma Cai made an important expansion in art research. The two Art Lectures written by Zong Baihua in the 1920s were not published in front of him, but were only included in the Complete Works of Zong Baihua (volume 1) in the 1990s. In the early 1940s, Ma Cai wrote six self-contained artistic papers, the first of which was programmatic and published in the 9th issue of New Construction, Volume 2 of 194 1. All these six papers are included in the Collection of Ma Cai's Art and Art History published by Sun Yat-sen University Press 1997. They still have fresh vitality and strong practical significance.
Ma Cai's artistic thesis "From Aesthetics to General Art" was born out of De Suva's "Aesthetics and General Art", which most briefly summarized the international academic trend of art independence from aesthetics. Ma Cai was well aware of this academic trend and made an appropriate evaluation of the main representatives of the artistic independence movement. From Aesthetics to General Art, it is clearly pointed out at the beginning: "Art or general art is a science that studies general art according to its unique laws. It was laid as a special science by German artist roger federer more than 65,438+000 years ago, and was later endowed with a special scientific system by De Soyt and Utitz. " See Ma Cai's Collection of Art and Art History, Sun Yat-sen University Press, 1997, p. 1.
It is very accurate for Ma Cai to select Federer, De Soyt and Utiz from many representatives of the artistic independence movement to elaborate. Colade Fidler was called "the father of our modern art" by Utitz. Federer did not put forward the name of "art", but he distinguished beauty from art, aesthetics from art theory, and stipulated the general problems that art should solve.
In China Art Research, Ma Cai gave a clear definition of art for the first time: "Art is a science that studies the principles and laws of art's essence, creation, appreciation, effect, origin, development, function and type". See Ma Cai's Collected Works of Art and Art History, Sun Yat-sen University Press, 1997, page 7. This definition combines historical research (origin, development) and logical research (essence, function, type, etc.). ), and contains the embryonic form of studying artistic activities as a system of "artistic creation-artistic works-artistic appreciation". In order to keep the pure interest of art research, it is necessary to distinguish between art research (general art research) and category art research (special art research). In this regard, Ma Cai has a precise explanation: "Although the knowledge of specialized art, that is, all kinds of art history and materials provided by various art studies are constantly used for reference, the study of general art is by no means a direct discussion of special artistic phenomena such as drama and music, nor an anatomical analysis of specific works of writers in a certain era such as Song Dynasty paintings or Gu Kaizhi, but a theoretical investigation based on artistic abstract concepts." See Ma Cai's Collected Works of Art and Art History, Sun Yat-sen University Press, 1997, p. 9. This methodological principle of art research put forward by Ma Cai 60 years ago is still of great significance to the construction of our art discipline.
Since 1950s, although art research has never been interrupted in China, art as a discipline does not exist. In China's subject catalogue, the first-class subject art originally included seven two disciplines, that is, seven categories of art, and in the mid-1990s, two disciplines's art was added. At that time, the consideration was that all kinds of arts had corresponding disciplines to study, but there was no comprehensive study on the relationship between the whole art and all kinds of arts. Therefore, it is necessary to add a discipline to such comprehensive research, so two disciplines of art came into being. Adding the art of two disciplines is a historical progress and a sign of the maturity of discipline construction. This is out of practical need, but it is not.
This is out of subjective imagination. In this way, from the perspective of the development of art, its research object is also general art, or general art.
The so-called art in a general sense has two meanings: the first meaning is to study the general principles of art. If we study the new trend of home appliance design, we will study the design art. If we take home appliance design as an example, we will study the relationship between art and technology. This is the research art, because it studies the general principles of art, and the second meaning is to study the art of interdisciplinary subjects. Nowadays, Korean dramas are very popular among young people in China. The study of Korean dramas belongs to the study of radio and television art, and Korean costumes are also sought after by young people in China. The study of Korean costumes belongs to the study of design art. If we study the Korean Wave, the popularity of Korean dramas has led to the popularity of Korean costumes and Korean music. The study of Korean Wave is an interdisciplinary art study, so it is an art study. Determining whether a study is an art study or a genre art study is only a fact judgment, not a value judgment. In terms of academic content, art research and category art research are equivalent, and there is no distinction between high and low. From a certain point of view, category art researchers have the advantage of engaging in art research. Because they are familiar with a certain art, they are suitable to rely on a certain art to engage in interdisciplinary art research or engage in the study of general principles of art.
We insist on the general art of art, have we set up discipline barriers to limit the scope of discipline research? Not only not, but also because the research on art is general, the problem of expanding art disciplines is put forward. Since art was added to the subject catalogue, the status and role of art in China's social life have been greatly strengthened in the past ten years, which is in sharp contrast to the gradual marginalization of literature. In recent years, a series of hot issues in China's academic circles are all related to art, and all need art research, which shows the necessity and correctness of adding art disciplines in that year.
Featherstone, a British scholar, put forward the problem of "aestheticization of daily life", arguing that the aestheticization of daily life is bridging the gap between art and life, making "life become art" and "art become life". In recent years, China scholars have had a heated discussion on this issue. A series of articles have been published in literary studies, literary criticism, academic monthly, literary contention, Guangming Daily and Literary Newspaper. The so-called aestheticization of daily life has two meanings: first, art and aesthetics enter daily life and turn into daily life. Second, everything in daily life, especially the products and environment in large-scale industrial production, has been aestheticized. But the main participants in this discussion are all literary researchers, and there are basically no art researchers. In fact, the aestheticization of daily life is closely related to art, and the art entering daily life includes pop music, TV series, advertisements, public art, urban sculpture, model performance and so on. There are many kinds of art involved here, and it is difficult to study it only by a single art category.
China is vigorously developing cultural industries and creative industries. The cultural industry is mainly an art industry, and the creative industry is also an art creative industry. These are interdisciplinary arts, that is, arts. The visual culture theory that literary researchers are keen on is also a problem that art researchers should care about. The images involved in visual culture theory are closely related to art, design art, film science and radio and television art, and the present situation of art development provides a broad world for art research.
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As a part of aesthetics, art is independent of aesthetics. Delsova advocates the independence of art because aesthetics studies both beauty and art, and its research field is too broad. The aesthetic relationship between man and reality and artistic activities is only partially overlapping. Therefore, the discipline of studying art should be distinguished from the discipline of studying beauty. In other words, aesthetics should only study beauty, not art, but should establish a new discipline to study art, which is art.
However, after the independence of art, aesthetics did not give up art research as Dessoit expected. In this way, a question naturally arises: when aesthetics makes a comprehensive study of art, or when aesthetics makes a general study of art, what is the difference between it and art? Dessoir didn't and couldn't ask this question at first, because he just wanted aesthetics to transfer all the responsibility of studying art to art. However, after art and aesthetics competed on the same stage, this question became acute. If this problem is not clear, art may be swallowed up and replaced by aesthetics with a longer history.
If the difference between art and genre art is mainly in the research object, then the difference between art and aesthetics in studying art is mainly in the research method. Art is more concrete and empirical, and aesthetics is more abstract and speculative. Art is a discipline between aesthetics and genre art. Ma Cai pointed out that the most important problem in art research, "the fundamental principle that runs through many problems", is the essence of art, and all the problems of art are closely related to this problem. Ma Cai called it the study of the essence of artistic philosophy. However, this does not mean that the concept of art can be explained from the principles of philosophy and metaphysics, and the scientific understanding of art can only be generated from the true feelings of art. In art, philosophy of art is the discipline closest to aesthetics and also the discipline most influenced by aesthetics.
It is a typical aesthetic method to study art from the principles of philosophy and metaphysics, which is particularly obvious in Hegel's aesthetics. When Zhu Guangqian translated Hegel's three-volume Aesthetics, he briefly summarized its basic content: "Aesthetics is to deduce the specific situation of artistic development according to concepts or basic principles. Volume 1 is about the principle of artistic beauty. The second volume traces the characteristics and historical development of symbolism, classicism and romanticism from the perspective of art types. The third volume discusses the characteristics and historical development of architecture, sculpture, painting, music and poetry (including drama) from three representative art categories. " See [Germany] Hegel, Zhu Guangqian translated Aesthetics, Volume 3, Volume 2, The Commercial Press 198 1 Edition, p. 346.
Hegel's aesthetics is a complete art study, and its volume 1 is not a study of general beauty, but only a study of artistic beauty. The second volume studies the history of art development, and the movement of art history has formed a series of "symbol-classicism-romance". The third volume (the first and second volumes) studies art morphology, that is, the classification of art, that is, the concrete and real art world. In this way, Hegel's aesthetics not only studies general artistic theories, but also studies various artistic theories. However, Hegel's aesthetics is a typical aesthetic work, because Hegel's artistic concept is derived and deduced from his philosophical system.
Hegel's philosophical system includes three main parts: logic, natural philosophy and spiritual philosophy. Spiritual philosophy includes three stages of development: subjective spirit, objective spirit and absolute spirit. Absolute spirit develops dialectically. From external perceptual intuition to internal representation, and then to conceptual thinking. It is art that expresses absolute spirit with perceptual images, religion that expresses absolute spirit with symbolic image thinking (for example, the image of father and son shows the unity of God and Christ), and philosophy that expresses absolute spirit with concepts. In this way, Hegel's absolute spirit theory consists of aesthetics, religious philosophy and philosophy history. Since the task of art is to express ideas with perceptual images, the value and significance of artistic expression lies in the coordination and unity of ideas and images. Hegel studied art according to the degree of integration of ideas and images. Hegel did not follow the artistic phenomenon and made an empirical analysis of artistic phenomenon, but revealed universality through particularity, taking particularity as the expression of universality. In this way, aesthetics studies artistic materials through philosophical generalization, which is different from art.
It is a research method of art to generate a scientific understanding of art from the real feeling of art. Lessing's laocoon is an example of analyzing artistic works in detail to explain the scientific understanding of art. It is an aesthetic masterpiece and also an artistic work. It is closely related to the artistic practice in Germany. At the end of 17 and the beginning of 18, the relationship between poetry and painting was brought to the forefront of artistic theory. Shaftesbury, Spencer and Addison in Britain, Dubois and Diderot in France, Bladin Geer and Potomac in Zurich all discussed this issue. The general view is that poetry should imitate painting and solve the task of expression through narration. /kloc-German scholars such as Moses in the middle of the 0/8th century? Mendelssohn also raised the question of the relationship between poetry and painting. In this context, winkelmann made a comparative study of laocoon's portrayal in laocoon and Virgil's epic. Lessing made use of the discussion initiated by winkelmann, but his purpose was not only to make a comparative study of poetry and painting, but also to explain his understanding of the object, task and means of expression of literature through this study. Lessing does not make abstract theoretical discussion, but draws the conclusion that the theme of poetry is action through empirical research. This is not purely academic research, but has a strong practical pertinence. Laocoon's real meaning was to oppose the poetry characterized by description and painting that was popular in Germany at that time. They are cultivated by court-style poets, poets and dramatists. Lessing asked literature to show the true face of German society, reflect people's struggle for freedom and democracy, and describe people's actions suppressed by autocratic monarchy. Lessing's conclusion comes from the empirical analysis of works of art, not from philosophical concepts.
The aesthetic study of art and the study of art are often inextricably linked, because art is independent of aesthetics. However, there are still obvious differences in methodology between aesthetic research and artistic research. Only by distinguishing between artistic research and artistic aesthetic research, artistic research and genre art research can art, as an independent discipline, have its existence value and broad development space.