Much of the recent philosophical literature about sculpture concerns the nature of
sculptural representation. Intuitively, representation in the visual arts has
something to do with resemblance: a painting or sculpture looks like the object that
it represents.
Clearly, though, this notion must be qualified, for the differences
between an artwork and the object it represents may be, from some perspectives,
far more salient than the similarities. A sculpture may be cold, hard, monochrome
and static, while the person it portrays is warm, soft, multicolored and mobile.
Richard Wollheim (1968; 1987), speaking chiefly of painting, refers to this
phenomenon as twofoldness: we see both the artwork with its particular material
features, and the object represented by way of those features, which we understand
as having a distinct set of characteristics. In Wollheim’s terms, appreciation of an
artwork involves seeing‐in: we see the person in the painting, while recognizing that
many features of the painting are not to be attributed to the person.
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more....
sculptural representation. Intuitively, representation in the visual arts has
something to do with resemblance: a painting or sculpture looks like the object that
it represents.
Clearly, though, this notion must be qualified, for the differences
between an artwork and the object it represents may be, from some perspectives,
far more salient than the similarities. A sculpture may be cold, hard, monochrome
and static, while the person it portrays is warm, soft, multicolored and mobile.
Richard Wollheim (1968; 1987), speaking chiefly of painting, refers to this
phenomenon as twofoldness: we see both the artwork with its particular material
features, and the object represented by way of those features, which we understand
as having a distinct set of characteristics. In Wollheim’s terms, appreciation of an
artwork involves seeing‐in: we see the person in the painting, while recognizing that
many features of the painting are not to be attributed to the person.
..
more....