The reference to Kant can be explained. There is no motion in the pictorial work. In at least one sense. The object, we think, just stays put. Yet we find motion there. The motion is not just in the depicting of a moving subject in the work. That is sort of obvious and in fact is not any motion at all. The sort of motion in the horses. We notice that they are not moving, in part maybe because we think they should be moving. Kant's lesson, Dufrenne says, is this: "movement in the subject precedes movement in the object."(278)

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"...the time that animates pictorial space must belong to the structure of the painting."(277) Are we here equating pictorial with painting? I don't think so, at least it needn't be that way.

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Okay, we begin again with our investigation of the aesthetic experience. In particular we consider the pictorial work. I think I am a little out of order from Dufrenne, but we have done the foundational work, and we can pick and choose a little bit. And we may return to the musical work sometime later.

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I have been spending some time reading Dufrenne and redesigning the website. I am not entirely happy with the aesthetics of the site, but I am going to leave it for now (if you have some suggestions leave a comment - keep in mind that I am not an artist, nor a graphic designer of any sort).

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What does the work of art offer? Remember what we said. We are not arguing the existence of aesthetic objects or works of art. We take as a starting point that there are such things. The preceding entry has been a preliminary investigation into why the work of art needs an audience, why it needs a public. The work of art must be viewed or otherwise experienced by people. That is the sense in which we, as spectators, complete the work, make it possible for it to become what it is. There can be no work of art without an appreciative audience.

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There are objects in my environment. Not all are works of art, but some are. Somehow, my attitude towards the works of art must be appropriate, and if no appropriate attitude from the viewer is to be had, then the work of art suffers.

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My own view of the work of art is perhaps a bit too static. My paradigm work of art is the painting. Now, of course we agree with Dufrenne that "the work must present itself to perception"(19). The various art forms have their different ways of presentation. For Dufrenne, I think the presentation is key to the being of the work of art. In addition, the paradigm of presentation is performance.

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We have seen that the aesthetic object is the work of art in proper disguise. That is, an object properly perceived. Dufrenne begins his discussion of the aesthetic object and the work of art by picking an example. He has already said that he will just rely on the experts in deciding what is a work of art. There is no point to try to deny that there are any. To me, in starting such a discussion

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In his introduction Dufrenne begins by consider how to begin. He distinguishes the type of aesthetic experience that is the province of the spectator from that of the creator and says that the aesthetic experience that will form his subject is the former.

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This series will consist of a reading of Mikel Dufrenne's "Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience" and my commentary on that reading. I invite you to join me. You can read along if you have a copy of the book. But you may also participate by raising independent questions and telling us what you think. The book is available at amazon, and maybe some other places as well.

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I've begun reading Mikel Dufrenne's Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience. You are all invited to join me in thinking about aesthetics. At some point I will try to explain why I am doing this. For now check out my recent posts in the Aesthetic Experience category. In the meantime, enjoy the sample (detail) from 'RC Plane (detail)' by anonymous. You may want to visit the National Gallery online, to learn more about art, though perhaps a visit to your local museum would work as well.