Art Culture & Society 2017-18
Assessment Essay Questions
Essay: 3000
- ‘… sociologyof the arts must engage with the ways in which received ideas of aesthetic value in art are contested by critics who invoke political values of equality of representation for particular producers of culture whose productions have not historically enjoyed legitimation as ‘art’.’ (Harrington, 2004: 4).
Critically examine Harrington’s argument with reference to examples. What challenges does this raise for a socially grounded study of art?
- ‘Culture today is infecting everything with sameness. Film, radio, and magazine form a system. Each branch of culture is unanimous within itself and all are unanimous together.’ (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1944)
Are Horkheimer and Adorno overly pessimistic about the relationship of modern society and culture, or do they have something relevant to say about the contemporary moment?
- ‘Painters thus depend on manufacturers for canvas, stretchers, paint, and brushes; on dealers, collectors, and museum curators for exhibition space and financial support; on critics and aestheticians for the rationale for what they do; on the state for the patronage or even the advantageous tax laws which persuade collectors to buy works and donate them to the public; on members of the public to respond to the work emotionally; and on the painters, contemporary and past, who created the tradition which makes the backdrop against which their work makes sense.’(Becker 2008: 13)
What role does the division of labour play in production of art? Critically evaluate Becker’s claims.
- ‘[For Kant] a judgement of beauty is a disinterested, universal, and necessary judgment concerning the pleasure that everyone ought to derive from the experience of a form of purpose.’ (Dickie 1997: 22)
What challenges does Kant’s universality of beautypose to the ways in which we make aesthetic value judgements and apply meaning to art?
Refernces:
Adorno, T. (1990) The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. London: Routledge.
Becker, H.S. (2008) Art Worlds. Updated and expanded 25th anniversary ed. London: University of California Press.
Benjamin, W. (2008) Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. London: Harvard University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
Inglis, D & Hughson, J. (2003) Confronting Culture: Sociological Vistas. London: Polity Press.
Rothenburg, J. (2014) Sociology Looks at the Arts. London: Routledge.
Tanner, J. (2003) Sociology of Art. London: Routledge.
+ Anymore references you can gather can also be used.
