Symbols & Semiotics

 Symbols & Semiotics


Painting is just like math. I may have a strong mental image of a sign-system, but knowledge of its mathematical application is the condition for recognizing that it is part of a bigger system. If someone is solving a math problem without knowing the formula, it will appear as a jumble of numbers, but if they know the formula, it will make sense. Painting/art is the same way. A person can only read a piece of artwork when they can apply meaning to it and relate it back to their own life. 

Power is always outside this relay of the visual image to the spectator, according to the Perceptualist viewpoint. The canal of perception that flows from painter to viewer is seized, expropriated, and deflected by power. The viewer has to interpret their own meaning and figure out what that power is. The artist may be able to tell if an image matches his or her original vision or goal, but the viewer may not have this information. However, such congruence as an essential condition for recognizing a painting is unlikely.

In the article, it talks about how the original matrix of economic reality appears first, followed by the inscription, the writing into art of what is happening at the base. However, as soon as this picture is fully sketched in, it becomes clear how difficult it is to comprehend how the model will work in actuality. There is the artwork as a whole and you have to interpret what the artwork means. Inside the artwork there are pieces within that helps you decide what it is. That is what the article means by the inscription.  

Every work of art exists within a context. Context refers to all aspects of the artwork that may have influenced it or its creator (artist), but are not actually part of the artwork. We can become more informed if we have more contextual information about the time, culture, and maker/artist of an artwork. The first of these is the mandate that currently governs most art history: to trace the painting back to its original context of production. However, the context may now need to be redefined in a different way. In art history, the term "context" refers to both the context of the creation of works of art and the context of their criticism in art-historical discourse. Similarly, the status of the artist idea, whether in a modernist or a humanist discourse, must be negotiated in connection to the art historian's stance, because any account fashioned about the artist is likewise inside the area of sign and semiosis.



 

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