Art Dewey Analysis

Dewey is persuaded that art is multifaceted. It not only invokes the beholder with visual stimulation, but through emotions also. He insists that real art is the experience of creating or encountering the object (p. 205). Work in turn is no longer a part of the experience, if it is nonexistent, therefore, it is a refined and rather intensified form of experience in life (p. 205). To illustrate, the artist is a producer a work of art and his work is experienced by the observer. If the artist is disconnected from the experience the art itself is disengaging. This implies the process of doing and one being immersed in one’s work. By this, Dewey explains why dictionaries define it in relation to skilled action and the ability to perform

208). He makes the distinctions between extrinsic and inherent meanings to help understand distinctions of expressive objects. The first mistake one can make discerning a work of art is via through its extrinsic significance. Extrinsic meanings are arbitrary; eliciting subjective interpretation rather than reason. Secondly, Dewey mentions the error of assigning inherent meaning to a work of art. This is what art work embodies, it is the characteristic attribute that emits from the object itself (p. 209). The substantive aspect of artwork, according to Dewey, lends to his notion that, “objects of art are a language” (p. 211). Dewey quotes Matisse, who said “When a painting is finished, it is like a new-born child. The artist himself must have time to understand it” (p. 211). As with language, the municipal meaning ascribed to the mechanism denotes the freedom of moving beyond the intent of the artist. The artist takes common matter and uses it in an uncommon way to reintroduce it in a form that creates a new purpose (p.

The nature of experience then, is determined in accordance to one’s relevant situation in connection to past experiences. Therefore, emotions are synonymous to experiences being that they are the pervasive force in which to accomplishment it. So, to simplify, art is not nature but rather organized by it, made easy to be altered in a way that it enables the individual and its municipal audience to experience art in a more meaningful way. Dewey’s analysis of the “arts” in light of how others engage with its various forms of expression. For instance, a song is more meaningful when an association can be made via lyric, rhythmic composition, or inherent emotions elicited. Past experiences add depth to present