Pattern and Special Considerations in the Organization of Landscape Material in Painting
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Date
1963
Authors
Koehler, John G.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
It was Aristotle who first expressed the idea that an artist should be more than just an “Imitator of Nature” As Plato had stated. It was aristotle's belief that an artist should concern himself with what he calls the “Essence of Nature”. He sees the artist as an organizer of human experience. As such the artist does not copy nature literally and indiscriminately but rather selectively and creatively. Aristotle states that the purpose of the artist is to express the “truth” or the “universal” in life or rather to discover those things which are meaningful and significant and present these in a discriminating, discerning, and effective way. In order to produce or express what is the “Universal” the artist must produce a work which Aristotle said was to have “Internal Unity”. A painting which has this unity is one in which all of the parts are so interrelated “if any of them is displaced or removed the hole would be disjointed and disturbed.” As Aristotle reasoned “a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference is not an organic part of the whole." To some of this philosophy in contemporary terms would be to state that an artist should try to be selective in his choice of subject matter, be creative in the use of materials and media, be discriminating in the presenting of meaningful and significant discoveries and observations, and be able to present the whole in an effective way. It was not the intention of the writer to bring Aristotle into this paper to lend an aura of respectability. Ever since reading this work already cited it has been felt that this idea of Oh I seeAristotle’s would be a fairly good “rule of thumb” by which to gage one's painting efforts, and also be a good point of departure or a framework for a contemporary approach to painting. It lends itself well to the subject of this paper.
Description
60 pages
Keywords
Aristotle, philosophy of art, still life