Arturo B. Fallico

Arturo B. Fallico states in his preface that he tried to avoid technical jargon since he envisions non-professional readers as his audience. This book is certainly readable for the non-academic. I mention this since so many books written by professors of philosophy tend to be highly technical and primarily written for other scholars. To share the flavor of Fallico's book, below are quotes taken from Chapters 2, On the Object of Aesthetic Awareness, along with my comments of the ideas presented.

"The sense in which the art-object is in, but not of historical reality, makes of it a free object, unlike any other object that we can apprehend." --------- Since existential philosophy values freedom above all else (think of Sartre's almost obsessive preoccupation with freedom), the key aspect of art for an existentialist, according to Fallico, is art residing in a realm of freedom apart from the murky, forever shifting everyday world. Thus, when one connects one's aesthetic awareness with an art object, one also connects with this world of freedom. And by aesthetic awareness, the author means perceiving the art object on its own terms, which, by definition, transcends any moral or personal or practical concern.

"Feeling and imagination are joined in such a way that the image is felt and the feeling is imagined, and our encounters with art-objects are more like encounters with people than with things." ---------- Think of James Dickey's Deliverance or Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. When we read these works we naturally have a visceral reaction to the violence. This is an example of how our relationship to a work of art can be emotionally similar to our relationship to a person. But, even if we take an abstract painting, say Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie, the more we open ourselves to the work, the more we get to know it. And this progressive opening and more complete knowing can happen over a number of years, which again is similar to the way we get to know a person. Thus, the affinity of art for existentialism; the existentialists are much more interested in subjects (people and personal relationships) than objects and things.

"Though unique, unrepeatable, alone of its kind, the art presence remains a source of novel being which fixes an infinity of things and states under its own distinctive single mode of feeling imaging." ---------- The author's rather abstract statement here can be understood when we reflect on our own experience with one of our favorite works of art. For myself, I read Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf back in my twenties, then again in my thirties, and again at fifty and yet again in my sixties. Each time it was as if I was reading the book for the first time, the experience was that fresh. This is one of the strengths of art - we can use an art work as a benchmark for our own maturity and growth when we revisit the art work at different points in our lives.

"Both the aesthetic and the dreaming consciousness thus speak for a spontaneity of being which comes into possession of itself." ---------- The existentialist is most interested in spontaneity as opposed to any mechanical actions or reactions, that is, an unthinking, unfeeling living-by-rote. Thus, the affinity with the freshness of dreaming consciousness and aesthetic consciousness, states of awareness more spontaneous and free by their very nature. I was a member of a dance group for a number of years where we dancers would dance together to live improvised music. We would dance for two or three or four straight hours, all improvised, all spontaneous. Take my word for it here, the sense of freedom was amazing. And this freedom did remind me of the freedom one experiences in dreams.

… (mehr)

Arturo B. Fallico states in his preface that he tried to avoid technical jargon since he envisions non-professional readers as his audience. This book is certainly readable for the non-academic. I mention this since so many books written by professors of philosophy tend to be highly technical and primarily written for other scholars. To share the flavor of Fallico's book, below are quotes taken from Chapters 2, 'On the Object of Aesthetic Awareness', along with my comments of the ideas presented.

"The sense in which the art-object is in, but not of historical reality, makes of it a free object, unlike any other object that we can apprehend." --------- Since existential philosophy values freedom above all else (think of Sartre's almost obsessive preoccupation with freedom), the key aspect of art for an existentialist, according to Fallico, is art residing in a realm of freedom apart from the murky, forever shifting everyday world. Thus, when one connects one's aesthetic awareness with an art object, one also connects with this world of freedom. And by aesthetic awareness, the author means perceiving the art object on its own terms, which, by definition, is freed from any moral or personal or practical concerns.

"Feeling and imagination are joined in such a way that the image is felt and the feeling is imagined, and our encounters with art-objects are more like encounters with people than with things." ---------- Think of James Dickey's ‘Deliverance’ or Anthony Burgess's ‘A Clockwork Orange’. When we read these works we naturally have a visceral reaction to the violence. This is an example of how our relationship to a work of art can be emotionally similar to our relationship to a person. But, even if we take an abstract painting, say ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ by Mondrian, the more we open ourselves to the work, the more we get to know it. And this progressive opening and more complete knowing can happen over a number of years, which again is similar to the way we get to know a person. Thus, the affinity of art for existentialism; the existentialists are much more interested in subjects (people and personal relationships) than objects and things.

"Though unique, unrepeatable, alone of its kind, the art presence remains a source of novel being which fixes an infinity of things and states under its own distinctive single mode of feeling imaging." ---------- The author's rather abstract statement here can be understood when we reflect on our own experience with one of our favorite works of art. For myself, I read Hermann Hesse's ‘Steppenwolf’ back in my twenties, then again in my thirties, and again at fifty and yet again in my sixites. Each time it was as if I was reading the book for the first time, the experience was that fresh. This is one of the strengths of art -- we can use an art work as a benchmark for our own maturity and growth when we revisit the art work at different points in our lives.

"Both the aesthetic and the dreaming consciousness thus speak for a spontaneity of being which comes into possession of itself." ---------- The existentialist is most interested in spontaneity as opposed to any mechanical actions or reactions, that is, an unthinking, unfeeling living-by-rote. Thus, the affinity with the freshness of dreaming consciousness and aesthetic consciousness, states of awareness more spontaneous and free by their very nature. I was a member of a dance group for a number of years where we dancers would dance together to live improvised music. We would dance for two or three or four straight hours, all improvised, all spontaneous. Take my word for it here, the sense of freedom was amazing. And this freedom did remind me of the freedom one experiences in dreams.

… (mehr)