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Document Details :

Title: Het sublieme in de kunst
Subtitle: Van Kant tot Duchamp en verder
Author(s): VANDENABEELE, Bart
Journal: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie
Volume: 73    Issue: 4   Date: 2011   
Pages: 701-733
DOI: 10.2143/TVF.73.4.2144961

Abstract :
Kant offers the most detailed and convincing account of the mathematical sublime in the history of aesthetics, and justly takes into account the deep grounding of aesthetic appraisal and creativity in experience and cognition. Still, as it stands, his theory cannot adequately explain the aesthetic value of the majority of modern and contemporary artworks. It is argued, then, that a critically upgraded version of Kant’s theory of the mathematical sublime ought to be developed in order to: (i) reveal the aesthetic value of so-called ‘anti-aesthetic’ art; (ii) substantiate the claim that the aesthetic value of a work of art does not exclusively depend upon sensory properties of the work; (iii) explore the topical relevance of the (mathematical) sublime as a viable aesthetic concept in art theory; and (iv) assess more accurately the crucial relation between form and content, which is essential to art. To enable us adequately to assess the value of modern and contemporary artworks, I develop two new varieties of the sublime, namely the mannerist sublime and the matterist sublime, and connect these with Kant’s theory of aesthetic ideas. Furthermore, it is shown how these two varieties can be successfully employed in order to account for the aesthetic value of modern and contemporary artworks.

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