Page 43 - Studio International - May June 1975

Seminar Five

Clement Greenberg

In a previous article (`Seminar One,' That any and everything can be any given time. This is why it's impossible
Arts, New York, November 1973) I experienced aesthetically amounts to to detach or abstract aesthetic
said that no firm distinction could be saying that experience in general, judgments from their objects, which in
made between the aesthetic and the presumably all experience, can double turn is why it's impossible to gain
artistic; that all aesthetic experience had back on itself. Aesthetic experience is the aesthetic distance — the distance essential
to be considered art. But I had to allow experiencing of experience. (Hence to aesthetic experience — from aesthetic
for the difference between aesthetic `aesthetic distance,' which should mean experience itself. (It's also why rules and
experience in the rough and at large — removing yourself by 'doubling' from maxims don't hold in the making or
which I called 'raw' art — and the kind of any possible consequence of experience.) appreciating of art, whereas they can and
aesthetic experience that is commonly But there's one kind of experience that do in morality and in practical life.)
recognized as art — which I called can't double back on itself, and that's As I've already said, aesthetic
`formalized' or 'formal' art. I went on aesthetic experience itself. If it could that experience is judging, is making
to say that aesthetic experience wasn't would mean receiving aesthetic judgments of taste, is liking or not liking,
subject to volition. That judgments of judgments of aesthetic judgments, which getting or not getting satisfaction in
taste, which are of the substance of can't be done. You can aesthetically different degrees; an aesthetic intuition
aesthetic experience, are intuited, experience the circumstances attending doesn't just coincide with, isn't just
therefore received passively (as far as on an aesthetic experience (like visiting an consubstantial with, a verdict of taste: it
consciousness can tell) in a way similar to art exhibition or sitting in a concert hall means a verdict of taste. Do the decisions
that in which sensory and introspective or feeling chilly and sleepy while watching that go into the making of art belong then
perceptions are. Further, I implied that the sun rise), but this isn't the same thing to aesthetic experience ? Of course they
the making of art and the appreciating of as experiencing the aesthetic experience do — when they're genuinely aesthetic
it belonged to the same order of itself, as doubling back on it and decisions. We can't exclude such
experience and could be assimilated to experiencing it at a remove. You don't decisions from aesthetic experience, and
one another. Croce had already said this, then experience aesthetically the since aesthetic experience is essentially
seventy years ago (in his 'Aesthetic'), and judgment or judgments integral to the judging, then these decisions must
some of the reasons he gave for saying aesthetic experience itself. An aesthetic consist in judging, just as appreciation
this were good ones. But I'd rather not judgment as such happens to be does. And because they consist in
repeat them here; I'd rather start from inseparable from its object. You would judging, these decisions are of a special
my own experience and see whether that have to separate a judgment from its kind in their very character as decisions.
has sufficed to bring me to the same object or occasion in order to experience Just as an aesthetic judgment can't be
conclusion. the judgment aesthetically, the judgment separated from its object, so an aesthetic
On the face of it the idea that the all by itself; if you couldn't effect this decision can't be separated from its
appreciating and the creating of art can be separation you would simply be result: one is the other, without any gap
assimilated to one another seems far- duplicating or trying to duplicate the between them. When the artist makes an
fetched. It could be granted that original experience of that judgment. aesthetic decision he experiences its
appreciation is passive, but how can it be Suppose you tried to experience all by result in the decision itself, and at the
maintained that the making of formal art itself your original judgment of a line of same time. And it makes no difference
is passive too ? Doesn't formal art, unlike verse — say Wordsworth's 'Our birth is whether that decision stays locked in his
the 'raw' kind, require willing, but a sleep and a forgetting' ? How could mind or whether it gets precipitated in an
deliberating, and deciding ? In the same you experience, or re-imagine, that object, an act, or a symbolized meaning.
previous article I also asserted that any judgment without at the same time (In the context of my argument it makes
and everything can be experienced experiencing or imagining the very no difference. But this isn't to say that
aesthetically, which would mean words of that line ? How could you ever many of the most fruitful decisions do not
passively. It would follow from this that detach your judgment from those words come as feedback in the course of
any decision involved in the making of and the superbly varied rhythm of the making an actual object or arriving at an
art could be experienced aesthetically, line as a whole ? A moral judgment can be act or symbolized meaning. The artist
therefore passively. But it would also separated from its object: a judgment receives judgment-decisions — inspiration,
follow that any kind of decision that says it's wrong to make fellow- if you like — from his medium as he works
whatsoever, practical and moral as well as creatures suffer has for its object fellow- in it; one judgment-decision, as the artist
aesthetic, could be experienced creatures in general, and where the himself sees, hears, or reads it, gives rise
aesthetically, and therefore passively. So object is a general or collective one it can to another or reacts on a previous one or
what difference could there be between be detached from any judgment made of cancels it out or cancels itself out.)
the aesthetic and passive experience of an it. The same with practical judgments: The artist, writer, composer,
aesthetic decision and the aesthetic and that too great an accumulation of ice will choreographer, director, performer
passive experience of a non-aesthetic damage the roof of a house is a judgment invites the beholder to accept the
decision ? It doesn't serve my argument that has for its object roofs, ice, and judgment-decisions he has accepted for
to hold that acts of volition in general can damage in general; the judgment here, himself. He asks that these be intuited by
be experienced passively. There has to be too, can be separated from its occasion others as positively, with as much
something more intrinsically passive in and experienced aesthetically as a satisfaction, as he himself has originally
the decisions that go into the making of judgment. What makes aesthetic intuited them. He counts on the
formal art if they are to answer in kind the judgments different is that their objects or beholder's, auditor's, reader's taste as he
decisions that go into its appreciation. occasions are unique — one-time things at counts on his own. In effect he asks others

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