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painting that its dominant color r .. d a 1 ' t .

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that t e vanous taucs of red aJI(I ar
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t ' < o ors are < cltcate)y bal-
ancec , tnat 1ts composllwn and lu e tl .
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1 h t u "Xpr quaht\ of
sa ness. ano t at lne representtAd secnc r 1 "
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.. t\ed sa lllltr.raiJctof
uman natun.
I have now admilt of two nse:, of "ae tit tt' " a I . l
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to aest 1 tw quahlles and a nse wl
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I rt'l ' "h tu a st t"tJc
objects of works of art. t.e. all the )f. k 1 1
' ::> t .1 wu1 \\ llf' 1 are
properl y and/or criticized, iueludinJ?; at> tht"tic quulitit . 1
want to rnamtmn that, although the tem ""H tl 1 tt' '' 1 1
c s c m >Ot 1
thest the tvw ha\ littlP or nothing in ('Ormnun.
. to a cer1ain kind of peJctptuul qualit)
wh1ch can he d1stmgutshcd, although "'hat tlu- basi fc r the
distinetion is not ('lear. .. Ac::,thetie of a \\ork of art .. i J ,,hat
might ht t"alled a .. collection expression', in thul it r to the
of a \\ urk of art which ma) be app1eciated and/or
and, ib eullccted elemPnt ma) in a gi' en
mstance uwlude \ arwus aesthetic qualitie , nnnat thetic qualitie ,
per onal qualities, expressi\e qualities, Pntutional f'haracteris-
ttcs. moral characteristics. and so un.
What then is the soJution tu the problem of rei\ a nee tlw
problem of which properties of work:s of art an! properly appreciated
and/or criticized, and the problem of ho\\ this i:s determined'!
Beardsley, earlier ae thetic-attitude theorists such 'tolnitz. and
h,eminger share the vie\\ that there i::, some gtneral. clear-eut way to
do this. Roughly. Beardsley claims the determination can h made h)
applying the criteria of perceptibility and distinctness . ..!-' Tlu farlier
aestheti c-attitude theorists thought that the properties of'' orklS of art
which are properly appreciated and/or crit icizcd are tho ... e propertie:::
which can be the object of the aesthetic attitude. l" The mm P rec
accounts of McGregor and er do not really
attempt to give a coherent view of how aesthetic obje<"b are deter-
mined. Iseminger claims the determination of '' hich propertie"' are
properl y appreciated and/or criticized can he made by appl} ing the
crit erion of appreciatability. None of these accouuh; It
may seem to some that a theory of a kind thc!:!C arc "'t''t"king-
an account of u general criterion (or crittria) which will determine
which kind of properties of works of ar1 are rcle\ant-
can he worked out.
l am doubtful that a theory of kinds of prop .. can ac<"ount for
which properties of a work of art are aesthfticall) rcle\ ant and which
are not-the problem is just not one of of proper-
ties. Works of art have perceptible propertie "hich ar., rele\ant and
perceptible properties which are not: they have prop "rtie ... ,,hich can
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be appreciated and which are relevant and properties which can be
appreciated and are not relevant. One can "aesthetically perceive"
both relevant and nonrelevant properties of works of art.
The solution to the problem of aesthetic relevance is not a
general one of the sort sought by these philosophers; the solution, I
believe, will have to be a piecemeal affair, and the determination of
the aesthetic-object properties of a particular work of art will have to
derive from knowledge of the art form within which the particular
work falls. The conventions used in presenting works of art give
guidance of limited generality. For example, the fact that the
stagehands in traditional Western theater are hidden backstage and
the Chinese property man of classical Chinese theater is dressed
unobtrusively in black are clues which guide us to exclude them as
aesthetically irrelevant. But such guidance is of limited generality;
nothing prevented or prevents, for example, a clever playwright of
classical Chinese theater from writing a play in which the property
man in some way becomes part of the performance of the play. Simi-
larly. with regard to the color of the back of a painting, nothing
prevents a painter from creating a work of visual art similar to a
painting but which is painted on both sides of a piece of canvas. If
Picasso can depict an object from two different perspectives on one
side of a canvas, another artist could depict an object from one
perspective on one side of a 'canvas and from another perspective on
the other side of the canvas. Such two-sided paintings would require a
new way of presenting, similar perhaps to that of sculptures which are
to be viewed from more than one place.
As long as one is faced with traditional kinds of art , one can rely
on the established conventions for guidance. When innovation oc-
curs, one will be to a certain extent on one's own to figure out what is
going on, although since the innovation will occur within some tradi-
tional form or other, there will be some minimum of guidance.
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