Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Lisa Pasch "Tolstoy's Popularity"

One of the more popular paper topics of the class dealt with Tolstoy’s theory of art as communication. He says defines his theory as such: “Through the use of such devices as color, sound, and movement, art communicates to its audience a feeling or emotion that the artist has previously experienced.” As I have already stated in my paper topic to the class, I believe that this theory is valid but does not cover every single piece of art that has ever existed because it makes a lot of assumptions about the artist’s personal goals in his or her artwork.

This post is not meant to be a continuation of my paper topic, but to consider why Tolstoy’s theory resonates with so many people in the class and around the world. I don’t assume every single person in the class is an artist, and I don’t claim to be one myself, but we can all relate to the desire to communicate emotion. As human beings, everything we do is lined with emotions. The way we experience things, the way we view things, the way we communicate with other human beings…we can associate an emotion with all of those things. For example, when first meeting someone you remember what someone wears or how they acted towards you and what you thought about it. Was it a cute outfit? Was their shirt dirty and unkempt? Did their shoes match their belt? Did fidget when they stood to talk to you? Were they texting while you were introducing yourself? Did you like their necklace? Through noticing these things, we can feel comfortable or uncomfortable, happy, irritated, pleased, and so on all from the smallest of characteristics, and our opinions of them from that first impression are tainted with whatever emotion we were feeling at that time, whether it be related to their appearance or not. So I think that because we all have emotions, even in the smallest of circumstances, it is our natural desire to share those emotions with others and relate with others in some way.

That’s where Tolstoy comes into play. We all have these emotions, and we all want to communicate, so it’s natural to assume that an artist is making art for the purpose of that communication. As much as we feel from seeing a piece of art, so we assume that artist was also feeling or experiencing at a similar or more pronounced level. With ancient art, we can only guess what the purpose of some art work was. With modern art, we can speak with the artist, gain understanding, read their writings on whatever they were creating, hear from someone else who had spoken with them about the piece, and more. We can develop a better understanding, but as for art before the time of written communication, can we really say that all of the things we consider to be art work of the time to be a vehicle for communication for the artist? I don’t think that it’s fair to say that every artist creates art for the same reason, even if that reason is understandable and relatable from an onlookers point of view. I can see why Tolstoy is so popular among students, but I don’t know if it’s incredibly fair to say it applies for all. I think a combination of Tolstoy’s theories with those of others may provide us with a more complete understanding of the purpose and meaning of artwork.

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