Art and Expression Richard P. Kulczak Department of Philosophy Birkbeck College University of London May 2001 Introduction What is it for an artwork to express determinate emotions, such as joy, and how, if at all, does it do so? In order to say anything worthwhile about expression in art, we must first address the relationships that the enterprise of art gives rise to. In broad terms, expression has been outlined as the manifestation, exhibition, objectification, embodiment, or projection of human qualities (or anthropomorphic properties) in or onto artworks, either 'brought about' or perceived by the artist or spectator, as a way of characterising or describing artworks. Unfortunately, this description is too wide and complex to be useful, and is in need of clarification by way of pinpointing exactly where the problem of expression resides. In the first instance, we may focus on the artwork, its artist (or art-appropriator), or the spectator of the work as ways of approaching the problem; their interrelationships will offer a useful way to illustrate the importance of emotional expression in understanding this enterprise. From this introductory characterisation it may become clear that there is a fundamental relationship between the artwork and its artist, as well as between the work and its spectator. Conceivably one might offer the following initial interpretation: An artwork, in embodying or being produced by an artistic-act (executed by an artist or art- appropriator), can be expressive of emotion or ascribed expressive qualities 1 which are discerned by spectators in an experience of the work (or an experience offered by the work) who use anthropomorphic terms, some of which describe human emotion. This rendition of the problem locates expression in the work itself as a feature, rather than in the artist or spectator, either of whom somehow possesses the expression of emotion or projects or transfuses it into the work. These expressive qualities, being a subset of aesthetic qualities, are described by anthropomorphic terms such as sad, melancholy, and joyous. Before continuing to further detail these notions, we should review where other hypotheses locate the problem to see whether or not this initial conception begins to offer what is required of a full and faithful rendering of the issues. Expression of the Artist or the Audience Approached in a quadri-partite analysis, expression may be couched first in terms of the artist. The Expression Theory put forward by Collingwood 2 defined art in terms of expression. In this way, expression is an activity of the artist, and may be seen as a process in which the artist gives expression to his or her emotions through the available artistic media. Alternatively, the spectator may be seen to apprehend or experience emotion in themselves, either offered or evoked by an artwork; here we experience emotions of our own somehow furnished or evoked in us by the artwork. Furthermore, the expression of emotion may be 1 I use the slightly less contentious term 'qualities' rather than 'properties' in the hope of avoiding discussions of whether artworks can actually possess properties, or that there can be real, objective properties of things independent of us. 2 (1938) The Principles of Art (Oxford: OUP, 1958)