Franz Boas and the Primacy of Form

British Journal of Aesthetics 64 (3):381-395 (2024)
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Abstract

There is systematic epistemic asymmetry between different centers of art production: we know far more about some (e.g. fifteenth-century Italian paintings) than about others (e.g. fifteenth-century Inca textiles). As long as we are focusing on the social context of the artworks or the artist’s intention, this epistemic asymmetry remains, given that we have vastly more information about the social context of the artworks or the artist’s intention when it comes to ‘Western’ art—again, because of the historically contingent differences in record-keeping and the survival rate of such records. If we want to overcome the epistemic asymmetry between ‘Western’ and ‘Non-Western’ art, we need to look elsewhere. I will argue, using Franz Boas’s work, that we should look for formal features. In order to avoid the epistemic asymmetry that follows from the historically contingent fact that we have more information about some cultures than about others, we need to start our analysis with formal categories.

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Bence Nanay
University of Antwerp

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References found in this work

Threefoldness.Bence Nanay - 2018 - Philosophical Studies 175 (1):163-182.
Understanding Pictures.Dominic Lopes - 1999 - Philosophical Quarterly 49 (196):398-400.
Is twofoldness necessary for representational seeing?Bence Nanay - 2005 - British Journal of Aesthetics 45 (3):248-257.
On Painting.Leon Battista Alberti, John R. Spencer, Creighton Gilbert, E. W. Dickes & Brian Battershaw - 1956 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 26 (1):148-148.
On formalism and pictorial organization.Richard Wollheim - 2001 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 59 (2):127–137.

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