The Artist's Sanction in Contemporary Art

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63 (4):315-326 (2005)
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Abstract

I argue that contemporary artists fix the features of their works not only through their actions of making and presenting objects, but also through auxiliary activities such as corresponding with curators and institutions. I refer to such fixing of features as the artist’s sanction: artists sanction features of their work through publicly accessible actions and communications, such as making a physical object with particular features, corresponding with curators and producing artist statements. I show, through an extended example, that in order to grasp the nature of contemporary artworks, and thus be in a position to interpret them, we must attend to the features the artist has sanctioned. However, this does not amount to saying that the artist’s intention fixes the features of the work. While related to intentions, sanctions are not identical to them; and, indeed, the features the artist has sanctioned may conflict, in some cases, with those she intended. I distinguish my view from actual and hypothetical intentionalism and show that considering the artist’s sanction does not force us to accept any particular interpretation of the work. I also show that, while it has special relevance to our understanding of contemporary artworks, the notion of the sanction is in fact relevant to traditional Western art as well.

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Author's Profile

Sherri Irvin
University of Oklahoma

Citations of this work

Why can’t I change Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony?David Friedell - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 177 (3):805-824.
Philosophy of games.C. Thi Nguyen - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (8):e12426.
Psychologism and Completeness in the Arts.Guy Rohrbaugh - 2017 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 75 (2):131-141.
Forgery and the Corruption of Aesthetic Understanding.Sherri Irvin - 2007 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (2):283-304.

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References found in this work

Categories of Art.Kendall L. Walton - 1970 - Philosophical Review 79 (3):334-367.
Apparent, Implied, and Postulated Authors.Robert Stecker - 1987 - Philosophy and Literature 11 (2):258-271.
Actual intentionalism vs. hypothetical intentionalism.Gary Iseminger - 1996 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54 (4):319-326.

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