Art & Art History ETDs

Publication Date

1-31-1974

Abstract

Until the nineteenth century, representational illusionism in art remained fundamentally concerned with the problems of achieving a "convincing" likeness of things in nature, that is to say, with achieving the illusion that a painting is a window through which we see the real world. During the nineteenth century, however, the commitment to this notion of painting underwent a series of radical challenges. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the reasons for these challenges and the reasons why "new" illusions for painting were "discovered" in the nineteenth century and a new form of illusionism emerged during the early twentieth century. In addition, this thesis seeks to determine and discuss the implications of the new form of illusionism both for the art which followed and for the art audience's willingness and ability to understand the new directions. In order to give the reader a philosophical perspective on the role of illusionism in art, this thesis begins with a summary of Plato's and Hegel's views on art's relationship to truth. Subsequent discussions deal with the nineteenth century rejection of idealism (a rejection of universals rather than particulars) and with the artist's preoccupation with representing "new" illusions, those of man's experience of nature rather than of the appearances of nature (mimesis). The final chapters of this thesis are concerned with the new form of illusionism which emerged during the early twentieth century, a form which often ignored the traditional problems of achieving a "convincing" likeness of the real world while exploiting the tradition itself, and a form which lay outside this tradition entirely. Twentieth century illusionism succeeded in transcending the essential distinctions between an object in nature and an object depicted as being in nature by allowing any object to represent itself as a work of art. In order to enforce such a reading of any ordinary object, the new form of illusionism involved the displacement of objects from their normal context into a setting where they would be regarded as art, namely, the museum. The result was that the spectator came to regard the commonplace and familiar objects of the street as works of art because they were embedded in a context of art.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Arts

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Leonard Lehrer

Second Committee Member

Garo Zareh Antreasian

Third Committee Member

Beaumont Newhall

Fourth Committee Member

Tamara Holzapfel

Download

Share

COinS