Page 66 - Studio International - December 1973

ART THEORY& PRACTICE
question of its newness is determined not by accountable by the import of Wittgenstein's question of the chicken and the egg. Both
analysis but by social power or pedagogy, the `use' rather than 'meaning' prescription in the concepts simply contribute to the same
vanguard painter functions in a milieu utterly realm of art, such that artists have tended, since framework of belief, which is here termed 'Post-
indifferent to the content of his work'. (` The Duchamp, to take a priori usage over constraints Duchampian Art', for the reason that Duchamp
Tradition of the New' 1959). upon usage. In short, the constitutive criteria and most explicitly instigated its conceptual
It is certain that in prescribing an exclusive governing principles are taken a posteriori to the priority-ordering in his ready-made norm.
formal determinacy of 'content' or of the items of the realm of art, themselves, the latter The value of 'novelty' or of 'newness' is self-
`meaning' of art-works, what is indicated is the being deemed to be efficacious in determining evidently a part of the historical 'coveting
purported intelligibility of the latter in terms of the former. Individuation is thought to precede concept' and in the same way can, itself, only
certain 'pure forms', nominated in a cognitive constitution. It is here that the division of properly be upheld as a 'covering value', which
framework for apprehension. The formalism to ontological commitment has been useful in includes other subsumed values. Having
which I am referring is principally concerned veiling the paradox of this gross inversion of referred to the necessity of a telos in the
with the 'forms' of apprehension (of logical priorities. reductionistic process (of 'discovering' a
apprehending identity and constitutive The real factual 'objects of art' are taken fundamental or essential aspect of the art-work)
attributes). Naturally is it thought that, for the a priori, and individuation is established for the sake of (methodological if not theoretical)
art-work to connotate a new manner of accordingly in itemizing the realm of art. This adequacy, it should be clear that the
apprehension (which is primarily where represents the operation of the normative introduction of the concept 'novelty' in art-
`newness' is taken to reside), it must exhibit ontological conviction of P-D artists. However activity has been the manner in which
certain natural morphological attributes which the radicalism or reductionism of P-D art reductionism, which is fundamentalist, has
correspond to the 'pure forms' of apprehension which advocates the paradoxical 'expectation of made the transition to an autonomous
nominated. However P-D-works are taken to be the unexpected', in its cognitive ambience, reductionism in the absence of a presupposed
intelligible in the latter, rather than the former. requires that the forwarding of a new art-work telos. It is, in short, a 'value' for the promotion
(The post-Wittgensteinian art-theoretical should additionally forward a new 'mode of of sceptical reductionism, which assumes
notions in fact provide a 'logic' which seems to apprehension' or, in more old-fashioned (implicitly) an identification for art in the
maintain the necessary correspondence or even terminology, a new 'aesthetic stance'. For this evolution of reductionism itself. Novelty as a
equation between the natural forms and the purpose the morphological structure of the value taken to the exclusion of any subsumed or
logical forms of apprehension, though it, like `object of art' (`contextually') must be regarded subordinated values is similarly pre-empted of
P-D art itself; is rooted in an 'inverted as being efficacious in nominating 'pure forms', meaning. Like the notion of tolerance, which
intentionality' which commits it away from ever which are comprehensibly linked to antecedently seems to be rooted in the same ideology,
becoming meaningful even in its own terms). nominated 'forms'. Thus the introduction of a novelty is only a value for other values, just as
Indeed, within the rulings of P-D art and its new item to the realm of art is thought to tolerance is only a societal virtue inasmuch as it
implicit 'theory', it is not even thought that engineer a change of 'mode of apprehension'. prescribes the pluralistic compatibility of
`natural' formal alteration is a pre-requisite to The way in which this purported change is contending interests (and values, natures, etc).
effecting a change in the apprehensional forms. thought to be established is by the dual The result of an exclusive acceptance of either,
Latter-day conceptual art attempts the formal ontological conviction to the real factual and the finally engenders nihilism by the pre-empting of
alterations which characterize the 'evolutionary purely formal. Paradoxically, for P-D art-works subsumed values. The dual application, in
reductionism' of P-D art in an absence of to remain intelligible, the latter conviction must isolation, of these concepts is simply the
natural substance to the 'object of art'. be assumed to be conceptually antecedent, articulation of a 'framework' apart from the
There is an ontological duality involved in whereas for the art-work to be deemed function that the 'covering framework' logically
the nomination of the 'pure forms' of efficacious in maintaining the reductions or serves. Evolutionary reductionism is just such
apprehension, whilst retaining the real factual 'revolutions' which it presupposes, the former a 'covering concept' for art. It pre-empts
(or physical) art-work (whether it be ontological conviction must be assumed to be the functions it may serve (fundamentalism)
substantial or not) as the explicit ontological conceptually antecedent. Consequently, the and yet retains the empty framework as an
directive, though it is precisely this split which art-work proper can neither be equated with the identifying assignable feature of art, by itself.
provides the paradoxical modus operandi of a physical artefact (or factual assembly of real P-D reductionism, taken apart from a
reductionistic evolutionary process, as well as things) nor with the 'pure forms' nominated, teleologically assignable function, is maintained
affording the value of 'novelty' some with consistency. as deterministic and manneristic. Thus the
conceptual or evaluative principality. Conversely, the only way in which the split underlying logic of this framework of belief is
To understand the operation of the dual ontological commitment can be sustained in `means' rather than 'ends' orientated. It is
ontological commitment in maintaining the operation, is by the introduction of an historical rooted in the inverted intentionality, ascribable
radicalism imposed by P-D art, another aspect `covering concept' of art and to stress the to Wittgenstein by the influence of his
of this framework of belief needs to be `evolutionary' nature of art, so that the opposing descriptive thesis in a prescriptive capacity,
appreciated firstly. This is its principally determinations (mode of apprehension whereby art-works (items of the realm of art)
extensional basis, such that it is assumed that the determining the nature of the art-works, and the are thought of as efficacious in determining the
`range' of the concept of art determines the art-work determining the mode of apprehension) `concept of art', instead of prescribing, as a logic
concept rather than vice versa. In other words, can be given a historical or sequential ordering for action, the reverse priority-ordering.
it is the instances of its employment which might appear to prevent their mutual Consequently, such reductionism subverts the
collectively, which are thought to determine the exclusivity. Art is thence regarded as a `content' of the art-work, conversely with the
nature of the concept, rather than the concept of succession of these alternating determinations elevation of its covering concepts of 'history'
art determining the range within which it is in a strict temporal ordering. This is thus how and 'novelty' etc. Rather than apprehension
permissibly employed. By the introduction of the paradoxical 'evolutionary reductionism' is being directed to those aspects of the 'object of
new art-works, it is thus thought that a arrived at from the split ontological convictions art' which are subject to conscious deliberation.
conceptual revision is engaged. Indeed the of the P-D framework of belief. The question of (intentionality), it is directed away from the
recognition of the 'newness' of art-works is which came first, the ontological commitments `content' of the art-work, towards the
taken to be efficacious in determining a or the notion of 'evolutionary reductionism' purportedly determining issues in the planes of
conceptual change. (or even of the 'avant garde') and thus which formal apprehension — 'context stressing'. The
This conviction of P-D art is partially explanation is the most 'correct' is like the assumed efficacy of 'contextual issues' over those

26o