Expression, Social Purpose & Artworld Context

3. Emotionalism (Expressivism)

Emotionalism (often termed Expressivism) posits that the primary purpose and ultimate measure of art is the communication and elicitation of intense human emotions, psychological states, spiritual truths, and visceral moods. Under this theory, literal visual accuracy and classical formal harmony are readily sacrificed in service of emotional authenticity.

Philosophical Foundations

• Leo Tolstoy: In What is Art? (1897), the Russian novelist and philosopher argued that art is a human activity wherein one person consciously infects others with feelings they have lived through, uniting creator and audience in shared emotional communion.
• Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood: Formulated the idealist expression theory of art, proposing that the true artwork exists in the artist's mind as an intuited emotional reality, which is clarified and externalized through the creative process.

Defining Criteria and Visual Characteristics

Under an Emotionalist philosophy, an artwork is judged successful if it:

• Evokes Deep Psychological Resonance: Compels the viewer to experience profound emotional responses—such as grief, ecstasy, terror, melancholy, anxiety, or spiritual awe.
• Employs Expressive Distortion: Deliberately elongates, twists, fractures, or exaggerates human anatomy, facial features, or architectural perspectives to project psychological distress or inner states.
• Utilizes Non-Local and Symbolic Color: Deploys raw, intensely saturated, clashing, or unnatural hues chosen strictly for psychological impact rather than optical realism (e.g., green skin to evoke envy or illness; fiery crimson skies to denote existential dread).
• Features Agitated, Visceral Mark-Making: Employs aggressive brushwork, violent impasto gouges, slashed lines, and chaotic gestural marks that record the physical energy and emotional turmoil of the artist.

Exemplar Movements and Artists

• Romanticism: Francisco Goya (The Third of May 1808, The Black Paintings), Eugène Delacroix, and J.M.W. Turner, capturing sublime terror, political horror, and turbulent atmospheric storms.
• Post-Impressionism: Vincent van Gogh (The Starry Night, The Night Café), using swirling directional brushstrokes and saturated complementary contrasts to externalize inner torment.
• German Expressionism: Die Brücke (Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff) and Der Blaue Reiter (Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc), channeling anxiety, urban alienation, and spiritual renewal through jagged woodcuts and acidic palettes.
• Edvard Munch: The Scream (1893), an archetype of emotionalism where the entire natural landscape undulates in synchronization with the figure's psychological panic.
• Neo-Expressionism: Late 20th-century artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, and Philip Guston, utilizing raw graffiti marks, mythological references, and visceral paint textures to confront historical trauma and racial identity.

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4. Instrumentalism and Social Purpose

Instrumentalism (a framework emphasizing art’s social purposes; contextual criticism is broader and not simply synonymous) asserts that art is not an autonomous luxury or mere aesthetic indulgence; it is a vital social instrument. Under Instrumentalism, an artwork's ultimate value is measured by its utility—its capacity to influence society, teach moral lessons, expose injustice, advance religious doctrine, or mobilize civic action.

Philosophical Foundations

• John Dewey: In Art as Experience (1934), Dewey argued that art is an integral part of ongoing democratic life, embedded in the daily cultural, social, and functional practices of a community rather than sequestered inside elite museum spaces.
• Marxist and Critical Theories: These approaches examine economic structures, ideology and culture. They do not all reduce artistic value to political utility; Adorno, for example, defended an important role for artistic autonomy.
• Feminist and Postcolonial Criticism: These investigate representation, exclusion and power. Linda Nochlin’s work examines institutional barriers to women’s artistic achievement; this is not a rule that all art must be graded by activist effectiveness.

Defining Criteria and Visual Characteristics

Under an Instrumentalist framework, an artwork is judged successful if it:

• Communicates a Persuasive Message: Clarifies a potent socio-political, moral, or philosophical stance that challenges the viewer's preconceptions.
• Inspires Action and Civic Change: Rallies public sentiment, provokes protest, stimulates policy debate, or fosters community solidarity.
• Serves Didactic or Spiritual Functions: Effectively instructs the viewer in religious narratives, civic virtues, or historical memory.
• Prioritizes Accessibility and Context: Engages directly with public spaces, everyday materials, and broad audiences (e.g., street art, community murals, performance protests) rather than remaining confined to private commercial galleries.

Exemplar Movements and Artists

• Northern Renaissance Didactic Art: Woodcuts and altar panels designed to visually instruct illiterate congregations in moral and biblical lessons.
• 19th-Century Political Caricature: Honoré Daumier's lithographs skewering corrupt French politicians and judicial hypocrisy.
• Social Realism & Mexican Muralism: Diego Rivera (Man at the Crossroads), José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, painting vast public murals celebrating labor struggles and denouncing capitalist exploitation.
• Depression-Era Resettlement Administration / Farm Security Administration Documentary Photography: Dorothea Lange (Migrant Mother) and Walker Evans documenting rural poverty to advocate for federal relief programs.
• Anti-War Masterworks: Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937), acting as a monumental anti-fascist indictment of the aerial bombing of civilians.
• Feminist Art: Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1979), celebrating women's omitted historical contributions; and the Guerrilla Girls' billboard campaigns challenging gender and racial disparity in art institutions.
• Contemporary Activist Art: Kara Walker's silhouette installations confronting the brutal legacy of American slavery; and Ai Weiwei's installations spotlighting human rights violations and global refugee crises.

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5. The Institutional Theory of Art

In the 20th century, the advent of conceptual art, found objects (readymades), and performance pieces fractured traditional aesthetic boundaries. Standard imitational, formal, and emotional criteria could not explain how an ordinary manufactured object could be hailed as a seminal artwork. To resolve this paradox, philosophers developed the Institutional Theory of Art.

Key Philosophers and Concepts

• Arthur Danto and "The Artworld": In 1964, philosopher Arthur Danto visited Andy Warhol's exhibition of silkscreened wooden replicas of supermarket shipping cartons (Brillo Boxes) at the Stable Gallery in New York. Danto realized that visually, Warhol's boxes were virtually indistinguishable from real Brillo cartons in a grocery stockroom. Danto deduced that what transformed Warhol's boxes into art was not any special physical property, but the existence of an "Artworld"—an atmosphere of artistic theory, historical knowledge, and critical discourse that made the object eligible for interpretation.
• George Dickie: Dickie formalized Danto's insights into the sociological Institutional Theory of Art. Dickie defined a work of art in the classificatory sense as: (1) an artifact, (2) upon which some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution (the Artworld—comprising artists, curators, museum directors, critics, collectors, and historians) has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation.

Landmark Watersheds

• Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917): Duchamp purchased a standard commercial urinal, inverted it, inscribed it with the pseudonym "R. Mutt 1917," and submitted it to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition. By removing the object from its utilitarian plumbing context and submitting it to an art venue, Duchamp asserted that an artwork is defined by the artist's intellectual choice and conceptual framing rather than manual fabrication.
• Contemporary Context: Institutional theory helps K-12 students understand why works such as Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana (Comedian, 2019) or Felix Gonzalez-Torres's piles of cellophane-wrapped candy acquire artistic status through context, curation, and institutional dialogue. Classifying an object as art does not automatically prove its quality or significance.

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Comparative Matrix of Aesthetic Theories

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Classroom Applications: Multi-Perspective Aesthetic Critiques

Art educators prepare students for comprehensive visual literacy by teaching them to examine a single artwork through multiple aesthetic lenses.

The Multi-Lens Critique Exercise

Consider facilitating a class discussion around Pablo Picasso's monumental 1937 masterpiece, Guernica:

• Through an Imitationalist Lens: Students evaluate the work harshly, noting that the anatomical forms are severely distorted, the spatial depth defies linear perspective, and the figures are cartoonish rather than lifelike. A narrowly photographic-realism criterion would underrate its achievement; broader theories of representation are not limited to exact optical copying.
• Through a Formalist Lens: Students praise the triangular compositional grouping anchored by the central horse, the strict monochromatic grisaille palette (black, white, and gray) echoing newspaper ink, and the dynamic rhythm of jagged, fractured planes.
• Through an Emotionalist Lens: Students highlight the visceral horror, piercing screams, severed limbs, and palpable grief conveyed through exaggerated open mouths, twisted necks, and weeping figures.
• Through an Instrumentalist Lens: Students celebrate Guernica as one of history's greatest political artworks—a scathing anti-fascist indictment that exposed the atrocities of warfare to the global public.