This piece of writting considers the notion of perceiving emotion in art. It is a response to the ideas discussed in an essay of the same name by Damien Freeman, whose essay considers, amoungst other things, Wollheim’s writting on the matter.
The unique experience of perceiving emotion in a painting seems to come down to a discussion of four parts. Two of these parts are relevant to the production and the others more directly to consumption.
On an initial level there is the emotion both perceived and (perhaps) inherent in the object the artist choses to paint. There is then the pressing out of emotion from the painter themselves.
The resulted pressing out produces the central tennant of perceiving emotion in art, the object itself. The painting is no doubt both a trace of the artist’s pressing out and somehow has contacts back to the emotion inherent, or perceived, in the object which is represented.
At this stage it seems important to note that the painter and the origianl object become secondary to the painting itself in our eventual experience.
The last, and this can fluctuate in the hierachy of experience depending on opinion, is the projection of our own emotion onto the work we view.
The central tennant of our expereince, however, is surely the dialogue opened up by the painting and the viewer. The painting has a certain constant which is the material properties ladi across the surface. These container, perhaps once and twice removed, the artists pressing out of their internal emotions and the inherant/perceived emotion in the represented object/vision.
What makes the experience of viewing art unique, it is argued, is the combination of these various facets adn experiences in viewing the work, it is not singular.
Firstly we have the perception of emotion which is received through ‘communication’ and ‘resonance’ rather than ‘infection’. This is in response to an externalized property. This is that we understand the emotion articulated but our response does not necesarriyl mirror it. Where there is fear, for instance, our understanding of this might lead to pity. It’s a notion Damien Freeman writes clealry about, referencing the idea to Aristotles discussion of the tragic audience experience of the suffering hero.
In response to the projective property, induced by the painting itself, we can expereince emotion through ‘articulation’ and ‘correspondance’. We can have empathy rather than sympathy, the possibility of pathos and direct emotional engagement is more possible. The expereince and sensation is not intellectually detached by tangibly present.
What makes art unique is the combination of these perceptions and experiences, that it engages us with a multiplicity of emotive expereinces.
