第一講 藝術評論的領域

AAE 5014 2005年9月5日

第一講 藝術評論的領域

主講：梁寶山

課程特性：這個課程雖然稱作藝術評論，其實是一門綜合的藝術評賞課程，是一個非常粗淺與籠統的分類─有關視覺的認知。

這是最難講的一課：藝術評論作為一個discipline的含混性；不能以定義來維繫這個discipline的穩定性。此處先把藝評修窄為文字的書寫，對課堂與創作的評賞容後處理。

所以，我負責的這一堂和以後的部份，將以點出幾個有關藝術書寫的problematic 作為引子。以現代主義為出發點，帶出幾個與評論相關的歷史轉捩點與理論的走向。

亦會引入本土的例子，希望為大家引路(orientation)，加入評論的群體(見馬國明文章)。

1. 為什麼要「學」？

- 藝術是知識的對象：視覺為知識的過程“Watching is not seeing”我們常常以為自己看見了，而其實不！

「觀看先於語言，兒童先觀看，後辯識，再說話。」

「但是，觀看先於語言，還有另一層意思。正是觀看確立了我們在周圍世界的地位，我們用語言解釋那個世界，可是語言並不能抹殺我們處於讓世界包圍之中這一事實。我們見到的與我們知道的，二者的關係從未被澄清。」

換句話說，藝術不單是審美的對象，是值價的載體，它更加掀示了認知的方式。所以藝術欣賞/評論不是不証自明，而是需要學習的。

“as non-judgemental and for the sake of knowledge only. In particular, criticism can be understood as imaginative re-enactment of creation or perception, with no determinate relation to evaluation.”

(Elkins “Art criticism” on Grove Art Dictionary)

2. 什麼是藝評Art Criticism？

一般來說，藝評與1.藝術史；2.美學關係非常密切，但那是怎樣的關係，則眾說紛紜：

“The history of art should present works of art- all the works of art – without judging them, without commenting up them, with the richest possible documentation of the facts. Art criticism should judge works of art in conformity with the aesthetic feeling of the critic. Aesthetics should formulate the definition of art in its universal meaning.”

(Venturi, History of Art Criticism, 1936 p.19)

“Art criticism is the 1. study and 2.evaluation of art. This criticism usually involves the use of aesthetics or the philosophy of beauty although there are other techniques. Part of the purpose of art criticism is to have a 3.rational basis for the appreciation of art and avoid 4. subjective opinions of taste but this is not always achieved.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_criticism )

3. 藝術批評與藝術史：

Elkins 在他的著作裡，同意Venturi的說法，應為藝術史與藝術批評跟本是二而一，一而二的範疇，無論從1.哲學性：2.修辭學；3.歷史學的異同上來說，都密不可分：

1. philosophical difference: descriptive and evaluation are mixed in all writings: inseparable from historical writings (藝術=藝術史)

2. rhetorical difference: persuasive and informative

3. historiographcial difference: are the one

~ “the body of art criticism is the body of art history”

(Elkins “Art criticism” on Grove Art Dictionary)

對藝評本身自省，其中一本較完整的歷史著作是意大利藝術史家L. Venturi的History of Art Criticism (1936)。其中的導論也以連串的problematic 去處理：

“If a fact referred to is not considered as a function of judgment, it is perfectly useless; if a judgment does not rest upon a knowledge of the historical facts, it is completely false.” (Venturi p.20)

“To understand an aesthetic principle means to verify it by personal experience, and in some ways to criticize it.” ; “the relation between aesthetics and art, between the idea of art and artistic intuition, is art criticism.” (Venturi p.25)

歷史不可能是所有事實的陳述，陳述本身已有選擇的過程並且已有價值判斷(mixed critical and factual narrative)

審美價值不可能是由一個人所訂立的，否則無從得知誰的準則更加高明

沒有能夠脫離於具體事物的審美對象，否則美學只成智性的遊戲

他並且強調，藝評的工作是要把藝術作品帶回到它原來的處境：

“A work of art cannot be understood and judged except by taking it back to the elements from which it results; followed by the pretty demonstration: if this be not done, a work of art would become something taken away from the historical complex to which it belongs and would lose its true significance.” (p.20-21)

- 這是藝評「語境論」的開始

“effectively to constitute the work of art which he examines, and which are indispensable for the solution of the critical problem which he propounds to himself.” ; “case by case”(p.22)

- 然而，一連串的問題也由此開始：

~ 是否一種「還原論」？藝術作品的意義是否能夠還原？又，還原到多少才夠？

~ 藝術作品的意義，有沒有標準的答案？是否必須以作者的原意為唯一的答案？

4. 藝術批評與美學(小西老師請引伸)：

“Aesthetics, a term used to describe thinking about the nature of art, particularly that which treats it as a singular and independent field of human experience. Generalizations about art may be traced back through European culture to Plato and Aristotle, and engaged many writers from the 15th century onwards…but the idea that art should be treated as a distinct area of philosophical enquiry stems from the writing of Alexander Baumgarten, who in 1735 proposed a term from the Greek aisthetika (matters of perception) to distinguish thought about our sensuous responses from thought on alternative themes such as logic or ethics Kant, who took up the growing fashion for the term in 1790, set responses to nature over those to art; but from the writings (1802–3) of Friedrich Schelling onwards, the tradition of writing on aesthetics has chiefly revolved around the visual arts, literature, and music. Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics (1828) added weight to this tradition, ensuring it a firm place in subsequent philosophic systems.”

(Grove Art Dictionary “Aesthetics” )

5. 藝術批評與藝術創作：

我們一般以為沒有藝術創作，便沒有藝術批評─藝術創作是先於批評而存在而藝術批評是輔助性的。

一種說法是，藝術家本身其實就是第一個評論作品的人─創作是一個不斷修正的過程，沒有完全的創新，則便難以被歸類為藝術，藝術家對作品不斷調較，是以前人的作品作為參照。故此藝術雖然沒有principle，但藝術作為一種知識即是藝術的歷史本身(如像哲學史就是哲學本身)。故此歷史的幽靈以評論人的聲音文字出現─無論是以第一身(創作者)、或第二身(觀賞者)─它都是歷史的幽靈，對歷史的承傳、背叛或轉換、誤讀和更新。最特出的就是中國文人藝術，對全方位的追求：藝術家文史互通，兼為收藏家、史家、論家。例如明代的董其昌提出南北宗說：

「禪 家有南北二宗，唐時始分。畫之南北二宗，亦唐時分也；但其人非南北耳。北宗則李思訓父子著色山水，流傳而為未之趙幹、趙伯駒、伯驌，以至馬、夏輩。南宗則 王摩詰始用渲淡，一變抅斫之法。其傳為張璪荊、關、董、巨、郭忠恕米家父子，以至元之四大家。亦如六之後有馬駒、雲門、臨濟，兒孫之盛，而北宗微矣。」

(明‧董其昌《容臺別集》卷四〈畫旨〉)

藝術批評是輔助性的─無藝術就無藝術評論 (“art is pointless without criticism” 後詳)─藝術評論擔當起製造意義的工作

- 所以接下來的問題便是：

~ 放棄定義說明，改而從1.「art world」 的約定俗成的實踐範圍來認識何謂藝評；2. 藝評的使命來引導這項工作的方向─希望除了在教學以外，同學能找到藝術評論對自己的作用，和與教學的關係。

6. 實踐範圍裡的藝術批評(歷史與使命)：

如果從圖書館的目錄索引中打入「藝術評論」art criticism ，便會顯示出大量有關藝術的著作。這些著作，有時被編年、有時以主題或現象作劃分，比較著名的藝評家，會有個人的文章專集，它們大部份都被當成是解析藝術的輔助性文字，是後於藝術而產生的知識。

6.1藝評的歷史及社會條件

啟蒙運動(文化民主化)：

- Public Exhibitions and the academy:

- Salon in Paris: official French art exhibition in Paris / “Salon Carré” at the Louvre/1737 (Louvre opened as a public museum in 1793) /works by the members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture /

- Denis Diderot (1713-1784)- the foundation of modern art criticism/ “Diderot’s Salons it has been a means by which a public for art has been cultivated and informed.”/ ideas of beauty arise from practical everyday experience of beautiful things, based taste as a faculty acquired through repeated experience of apprehending the true or the good through immediate impression which renders it beautiful

(中國也有「畫院」及「畫品」等級制，另詳)

出版語境Publishing context:

- 現代大眾媒體的出現，促使：1.報章評論園地；2.藝術雜誌變成藝評的陣地。

- newspaper: e.g. Louis Vauxcelles and Fauvism between wars in France; Hilton Kramer for New York Times

- art journal: Pan and Ver Sacrum – Jugendstil aesthetic ; The Studio- arts and craft; Art et decoration Deutsche Kunst and Dekoration – architecture and design; Der Sturm- expressionism

(香港例子：信報 明報 可參拙作 / Artforum, October, Art Journal, Third Text, Critical Inquiry, Yishu ……)

- 藝評人的身份，亦因為出版語境的不同而各異：

- the journalistic and the engaged;

- 另一個重要的傳統，是由詩人所主導，他們的信念是：

“only writers with a comparable intuitive understanding of creativity were capable of grasping the natureof this art and rendering it intelligible to an audience.”

“the relationsip between visual art and language. Contemporary art, by first abandoning narrative depiction and then undermining mimetic representation itself, posed this old question in a new and pressing way… persudaded the reader not through its power of description or analysis, but through equivalence- they did not wish to be seen as impartial judges of artistic production.”(Malcolm p.12)

(Malcolm Gee, “The Nature of twentieth-century art criticism”, Art Criticism since 1990, pp.3-21.)

7. 藝評的危機Crisis of art criticism

這點在課堂上未能詳述，藝術在整個藝術世界(the art world)裡的實際處境，其實非尷尬：

massively produced and massively ignored- no once can keep track!

Polarized: heavily historical and theoretical ; or sheer publicity and promotion of artist-celebrities

lack of disciplinary home

income: writers and invitation for other paid-jobs

never knows the readers

authoritative role has been replace by curator

* Descriptive art criticism: “Art writing that attempts not to judge, and yet presents itself as criticism, is one of the fascinating paradoxes of the second half of the twentieth century.” (Elkins, What Happened to art criticism, p.35)

而Elkins 的歎喟是：

~ “A ghostly profession, catering for ghosts, but in a grad style.” (p.10)

這也許跟接下來有關「藝評的荒蕪」論辯，也有着一點關連。

8. 藝評將來─寫黎做咩？

「藝評的荒蕪」論辯

黎健強：生產量少; 稿酬微薄；大學評審制度的窒息

馬國明：中國傳統隱惡揚善；未能形成評論的群體；公共領域失效，但寄望透過評論群體的產生，達至Habamas 所講的理想的對話空間，達至溝通的理性。

9. 我寫藝評來做什麼？

至於我自己寫藝評，是為了什麼？這大概跟人文學科的職意一樣：

“To settle the unsettled and unsettle the settled.”

回家想想：藝術對於你是什麼？評論對於你又是什麼？

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主要參考：

1.Edmund Burke Feldman, Practical Art Criticism, Prentice Hall, 1991.

2. James Elkins, What Happened to Art Criticism, Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003.

(please also see his explanation of art criticism on the Grove Art Dictionary:

www.groveart.com/shared/views.artcle.html?section=art.004330.1 )

3.Howard Smagula ed., Re-visions : new perspectives of art criticism, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall, 1991.

4. Gee, Malcolm, Art Criticism since 1900, Manchester University Press, 1993.

5. 郭繼生：《藝術史與藝術批評》，臺北 : 書林出版有限公司，1990年。

6. 附：

6.1 藝評的荒蕪」論辯

6.2. 梁寶山：「家藏藝術雜誌」，《獨立媒體》「今日讀咩書」專欄，2005年8月20日。(http://www.inmediahk.net/public/article?item_id=59914&group_id=23 )

Useful tools:

http://www.groveart.com/ (很好用的工具書，但只能在大學圖書館上連結)

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (網絡民主化的百科全書)

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The building of the Louvre in its present form was begun in 1546 by François I, who also founded the royal collections, acquiring works by Leonardo, Raphael, and Titian. Louis XIV was both the most enthusiastic developer of the site and the most heroic art collector (buying in 1661 much of the Mazarin Collection that contained many paintings owned by Charles I of England), and under him the collection was briefly moved into the Louvre. When Versailles was established, however, the collection was dispersed./In the half-century before the Revolution there had been inconclusive discussion about using the Louvre for displaying the royal pictures. A selection of—mostly Italian—masterpieces was put on show in the Palais du Luxembourg. In 1784 Hubert Robert was put in charge of setting up a ‘muséum’ in the Louvre but the project stalled./In 1792 the monarchy fell. Roland, the Minister of the Interior, immediately decided to press on with installing the national museum in the Louvre, and it opened as the Muséum (later Musée) Central des Arts precisely one year later.