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Comparative literature on French influence on Goethe is predominantly concerned with Rousseau. In seeking to redress that imbalance, this thesis offers the first comprehensive study of Diderot's and Goethe's art theory. It treats that theory as a whole, and places it in the context of the social and philosophical thought which preceded it. The first part of the thesis studies Diderot's and Goethe's thought on the visual arts and the theatre. That thought reveals different attempts to assert, through the creativity of the artist, man's dominance over nature. This first part also shows that the unrecognised differences between Diderot and Goethe lie less in their discussion of the production of art than they do in their discussion of the beholder. The second part opens with a study of Rousseau. Rousseau's concern to reinstitute in civil society the unmediated exercise of the will assumed from the state of nature grounds a suspicion of the imagination at odds with the art theory discussed in part one. Diderot's unique contribution to the natural law tradition rests, however, on the understanding of the imagination developed within his art theory. For its part, Goethe's art theory of the 1790s provides remarkable affinities between the contemplation of the object of art, and the harmony between the senses and the understanding sought in Kant's and Schiller's aesthetics. Despite such synthesis, the final chapter identifies a normativism in Goethe's later art theory more in keeping with the absolutist tradition before him, but which does not obscure the similarities between his thought and Diderot's. The thesis closes with a brief consideration of the broader relevance of such a comparison.

PhD / This thesis is an interdisciplinary explanation of correspondences between painting and philosophy. It does not offer, as could be assumed, a critique of philosophical concepts or an instrumental description of painting. Instead, it shows how concepts from philosophy can be used to see painting in new ways, particularly abstract painting. The philosophy discussed here is limited to continental or speculative philosophy, mainly, but not exclusively, the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The work of philosopher Richard Rorty also plays a part because he presents a clear description of the relationship between vision and philosophy. From a philosopher’s point of view, painting is highly relevant to an image of thought and is in general, used to explain conceptual assemblies. Rarely, however, do philosophers talk of painting’s own philosophy. This thesis argues for an account of painting as philosophy of sensation.

This study is an investigation into the communicative power of visual metaphor and the ways in which it is used by artists. A wide range of works of art are used to exemplify the theories presented. The first part of the thesis is a discussion of whether the term 'metaphor' can be used to describe some of the transformations which take place in visual art. It is shown that works of visual art produce similar kinds of displacement of meaning as those created in verbal metaphor. An idea for a theory of visual metaphor is put forward. Some applications of this theory to specific works of art are discussed. The 'ironic glance' which is characteristic of the artist and often of the viewer is identified and explained. Historical ideas of irony are placed in context with modern concepts. It is postulated that all creativity requires the artist to exercise irony in his or her initial view of the world; in making; and in the implicit assumption of a `putative audience'. A detailed discussion of examples of visual art selected predominantly from 1800 to the present shows that metaphorical expression takes place in many kinds of visual art, from the allegorical to the apparently abstract. A discussion of the interaction between artist and viewer follows. The concept of `distance' in the making and viewing of artworks is considered, particularly in connection with the idea of an ironic stance. The idea of the 'ironic glance' incorporates within it a sense of distance in all aspects of making and looking at art. The different ways in which artists communicate metaphorically are discussed. The importance of 'received' knowledge, especially in connection with the 'formal' elements of artworks and the individual viewer's 'mental store'. is considered. The way in which a viewer approaches art is explored' by showing the way that metaphor directs thought in a way which paradoxically both illuminates understanding and limits our view. The viewer's `mental store' allows him or her to understand some artworks and through this understanding approach other works. It is suggested that the directive nature of metaphor means that the artist, either consciously or subconsciously, has in mind a putative audience. Throughout, the thesis is supported by a broad range of reference. Similar ideas expressed by philosophers, critics, theorists of language, poets and artists are drawn together to support the formulation of new ideas linking metaphorical expression, irony and the relationship of an artist to the putative viewer.

PhD / This thesis is an interdisciplinary explanation of correspondences between painting and philosophy. It does not offer, as could be assumed, a critique of philosophical concepts or an instrumental description of painting. Instead, it shows how concepts from philosophy can be used to see painting in new ways, particularly abstract painting. The philosophy discussed here is limited to continental or speculative philosophy, mainly, but not exclusively, the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The work of philosopher Richard Rorty also plays a part because he presents a clear description of the relationship between vision and philosophy. From a philosopher’s point of view, painting is highly relevant to an image of thought and is in general, used to explain conceptual assemblies. Rarely, however, do philosophers talk of painting’s own philosophy. This thesis argues for an account of painting as philosophy of sensation.

archives@tulane.edu / Among the Nahua people of Late Postclassic central Mexico, specialists who worked with precious stones, feathers, and metals represented a highly prominent class of artists who were at the center of Nahua theories of artistic practice. The highly valuable materials that they worked were referred to collectively as tlazohtli, or precious things, and embodied immense economic, aesthetic, efficacious, and ideological value. Ownership of these materials was closely regulated, and works in these media played a principal role in communicating and at times constructing the identities of the nobles, rulers, and gods (teteoh) who wore them. Artists of this class further employed widely varied forms of knowledge—ranging from the technical to the philosophical—, all of which informed their modes of judging, structuring, and transforming precious materials. By analyzing Nahuatl-language texts in the original, pictorial representations, and surviving artworks in these media, this dissertation reconstructs a set of key issues for artistic work with precious materials as understood by Nahua people: value (tlazohtiliztli), appearance (ixnexcayotl), animacy (tonalli), and surface (ixtli). Employing interdisciplinary methodologies drawn from linguistics, literary studies, anthropology, and art history, this study reconstructs how Nahua people of the Late Postclassic conceptually framed these issues and how artists employed them as visual strategies in the creation of elaborate extant works in turquoise, feather mosaic, and cast gold. Engaging with Nahua thought on these issues brings to light local constructions of major visual and artistic concepts, including color, surface, and representation, that together constitute a Nahua theory of art. / 0 / Allison Caplan

Arthur C. Danto introduced the term “disturbation” in 1985 to denote artworks that confront audiences with the materials of reality in order to produce reactions that are continuous with those of real life. Danto argued that disturbational art dissolve the distance between representation and reality opened up by Platonic metaphysics and by the insertion of theatrical distance, returning art to its mimetic and magical phase. The thesis uses Danto’s conceptual framework to develop a critical account of artworks that use politics as the medium for their disturbational content by creating relationships with audiences that provoke the re-realization of attitudes, experiences and identities that have been suppressed. In Shibboleth (2007) by Doris Salcedo, disturbation takes the form of the ‘political uncanny’ and in the case of Domestic Tension (2007) by Wafaa Bilal, it takes the form of the ‘political abject’. The thesis argues that Shibboleth confronted audiences with “the return of the repressed” through a disturbational process of interaction with the space of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Departing from existing readings of Salcedo’s work, the thesis proposes that the installation provoked the experience of the political uncanny by physically enacting suppressed historical, economic and political divisions constructed upon a friend/enemy form of relationship. Likewise, the thesis argues that the use of virtual electronic media in the process of participation in Domestic Tension radically altered the structure of collaborative activities by its production of the abject through the detachment conferred by distance and anonymity. The degree of self-censorship and accountability that exists in face to face interactions was nullified by the process of remote participation which encouraged deindividuation and anti-social or dehumanizing behavior. The tendency towards dehumanization becomes intensified when the artwork’s content is political, thereby provoking hostile and distancing effects refracted by contemporary geopolitics.

George Dickie’s Institutional Theory of Art satisfies necessary and sufficient conditions for definition, but by leaving evaluation open cannot address artistic capacities to outstrip the usefulness of the theory for appreciating the concept of art comprehensively or meaningfully. Artworks that are known to members of the central and peripheral artworld seep into the general purview of the population at large as known “great works” of art. Upon examination of works that garner significant cultural influence, works broadly appreciated as great works, we find that their resistance to Dickie’s concept of “the artworld” and its associated behaviors is that which makes them conspicuously significant.