Defining Artistic Value

Type: 
Budapest colloquium talks
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Building: 
Nador u. 15
Room: 
103
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - 5:30pm
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Date: 
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Does artistic value exist? If so, in what is it? Can it be defined? In this paper I examine several answers to the latter questions. One answer that it is whatever we discover when we evaluate an artwork as art. Another is the composite view: artistic value is a composite of aesthetic value, a type of cognitive value, ethical value, interpretation-centered value, art historical value, etc. This view claims that artistic value is constituted by several independently defined values including those just mentioned. Finally there is the buck passing theory: V is an artistic value of an art work = V is a value of the work as a K, where K is one of the arts. (Lopes Beyond Art, 102).

This paper will critically examine each of these views.