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On the Serial Structure:
0 (Stipulation) The expression "intentional art" is used to describe the serial structure of the notions Concept, Intention and Dimension. I shall discuss these notions below under a number of points.
1 Intentional art distinguishes itself from a way of thinking which polarises conceptual and perceptual understandings, that is to say, intentional art cannot be defined in terms of either conceptualism or sensualism. In fact, the way I see it, the serial structure of notions referred to above is capable of deconstructing a polarisation of such viewpoints. As a start, however, we can state the following:
2 Two examples can be used to illustrate the variety of ways in which the term "concept" is interpreted. There exists a curious tendency to give a term a negative connotation when it no longer agrees with one's own system of understanding art. The result is often the creation of a number of varying relevances of terms which apparently allow one to eliminate one of the terms from the particular system or to transfer its meaning to another, different term. I am referring here to the construction of the difference between the linguistic (or definitive) and pictorial relevance of the term "concept". In a recent lecture Joseph Marioni emphasised the perceptual side of painting while dismissing conception as of no significance for painting, a line of argument he justified by referring to the term's exclusively linguistic reference.[2] For Clement Greenberg conception does have a pictorial relevance which is of decisive importance for painting. He transferred the linguistic relevance to the notion of ideation: "The conception of a work of art is not an idea. […] An idea is something you can put into words. […] Newman could lay out the picture in his mind. He's not the only one; and I said that is conception. Now I didn't say that Newman ideated."[3]
3 Barnett Newman - to whom Greenberg is referring in his quotation - uses the term "concept" in much the same sense as the term "idea" when, for example, he emphasises the characteristics of the plasmic quality of a picture in contrast to its plasticity. "The term 'plasmic' expresses a quality in this work, for it implies the creation of forms that carry or express abstract thought, a presentation in tangible symbols of some inner idea or concept, as against the term 'plastic', which implies the heightening or glorifying of forms we know."[4] The distinction which Newman makes should be seen in the context of his investigation of traditional Modernism as it developed in Europe. He believed that a simple continuation of the approach of Cézanne, Picasso or Mondrian contained the inherent danger of an academicism which would inevitably lead to the admiration and repetition of earlier solutions. For him plasticity became a synonym for such an approach and he writes: "Yet the propaganda for plastic form has become so disarmingly powerful that it has become the most difficult and entrenched enemy of the new painter."[5]
4 One could list a further series of interpretations of the term "concept".[6] For me the significance of this term lies in the indication that a picture is developed in the mind in such a way that all the decisive aspects of the picture already exist intellectually before it is created as a work. The notion of conception has nothing to do with arbitrary imaginations of psychological automatisms, associative chains of thought or unconscious dream-based random fantasies, but means that the concept appears in a certain sense as the potential activity of the work itself, which is presented in the form of an ideal imagination, i. e. as an object of the mind and not of sensual perception, even though the ideal imagination does become concrete on the basis of a sketch. I suggest that we should differentiate between 'mimetic' (i. e. imitative) and 'heuretic'[7] (i. e. creative, inventive) imagination - that is to say between an imagination which refers to an already existent form (solution) and an imagination which refers to a form or content which has not yet been given a setting. In this sense mimetic imagination can be seen as a mental replication and heuretic imagination as a mental new creation of our powers of imagination. I believe that the decisive aspect of heuretic imagination is that it is based on an idea, that is to say an innovative and creative principle directs and organises the conception or view with the result that this kind of imagination differs essentially from all other modes of conceiving or observing. In this sense sensations and the different moments of the worlds of feeling and sensitivity do not form the decisive principle of intuition, although they may be contained in it. To generalise, one could say that heuretic imagination is based on the idea as a guiding, organising and ordering principle - in the case of art as the principle of form-giving. This should be understood in terms of inner values of experience so that, in a wider sense, we can then talk of an experienced idea coupled with that characteristic of presence in which image and the idea of the image synergise. Such a form-giving (Gestaltung) can be described as conceptual when it is based on a heuretic imagination of the type referred to above.
5 Language is a means or a form used to present an intellectual content, i. e. also an organising, formative and regulating form. Colour, surface, space, body, border, edge, wall etc. in their pictorial form are also such a means. In this context I see no reason to reserve the idea for language or the concept for the picture.
6 Any artist who finds the notion of intentional art of relevance will not adopt an anti-conceptual standpoint. He or she is fully aware that important intellectual factors (ideas) are of considerable significance for his or her work and that these will acquire even greater importance the more his or her inner images of ideas gain formal strength. Such artists will not allow themselves to be restricted to conceptualism, because they know that only a serial structure of notions is capable of describing their artistic intent in a way that is - at least to a certain degree - appropriate. For this reason I shall outline below the terms "intention" and "dimension" in greater detail.
7 Artists who focus on the meaning or on the sense of intentional art perceive those elements which constitute a work in a particular way. The constituent elements such as colour, surface, body, space, border, edge, intermediate space, internal field, interior space etc. are not seen merely in terms of their autonomous character but as specific abilities which can synergise in a specific way to form a structure, an object and a picture. I have introduced the term "intention" in order to give this important characteristic a name. This term is not used in the commonplace sense of "a person's intention to do something" but in a more special sense of "the inherent capacity or direction (Bestimmtheit oder Gerichtetheit) of an object, form or material". Where I use this term in the context of art, I am referring to artistic capacity or direction. I have derived this understanding of the term "intention" - not as an "personal", but as an "objective" intention (gegenständliche Intention), or inherent capacity - from the use of the term in mediaeval philosophy.[8]
8 8 In certain passages in the philosophical literature of the Middle Ages the term "intention" is used in such a way that it can be understood in terms of the ability (inherent capacity) of an object which, however, first becomes apparent when an independent way of understanding, which can refer to this particular function, is linked to sensual perception.[9] For example the fact that a straw can be used to build a nest is called an intention. "It is necessary for the sensual being to seek or avoid certain things not because they appeal to or do not appeal to sensual perception, but also because of certain other advantages, uses or disadvantages. So […] birds gather straws, not because they stimulate them to sing with delight, but because they (straws) are a suitable material for building a nest. It is therefore necessary for the sensual being to comprehend such qualities (Latin: intentiones) which the external senses (Latin: sensus exterior) cannot comprehend."[10]
9 The decisive aspect of this passage is the inherent capacity or intention which, as in the example with the straw, can be grasped concretely as capacities, suitabilities, real possibilities. They appear as specific abilities (spezifische Fähigkeiten) directly linked to specific objects and materials. If we assume that such specific possibilities are inherent to each material or, to go further, each object, and that they first become apparent when suitable circumstances have been established, then we can define an intentional form-giving (intentionale Gestaltung) as one which focuses on the creation of such circumstances. The ability inherent in the straw is doubtless directed towards a specific purpose. This ability is not linked, per se, to the sensual perception of the object, but must be independently grasped - although it is of necessity linked to the sensual experience of the object. Such an ability can be called specific when it is directed towards a certain purpose in the sensual contextuality. If such a purpose does not merely serve a personal use but a creative potential of the object or material, that is their artistic potential, then we can refer to a concrete intention in the sense of an artistic capacity which can be distinguished from other, technical capacities of forms and materials. In intentional form-giving an understanding and realisation of the artistic potential of materials and forms takes place. Objects establish a relationship in which they can reveal their specific artistic potential.
10 The artist's definition of perception expands in such a context to a definition of an act of perception (Wahrnehmungshandlung). The artistic understanding of the creative possibilities, that is the intentional, object-related apprehension of forms and materials is always linked to thinking and acting in terms of things. The act of perception releases one, or a series, of specific abilities or intentions of the object. If it refers to colour, it releases a specific ability of colour, if it refers to a form, it releases a specific ability of form, and where it refers to space and object it releases specific dimensions. In this way form, material, surface, image, body, space and field etc. do not only acquire autonomous character but also a dynamic nature, as they take effect in a union, that is also in a structure of abilities which cannot be isolated, and form a synergetic system of abilities. In this way it also becomes possible to see forms as methodical ways of material and colour as methodically managed form.
11 The term dimension expands two aspects of this relationship. If we view it as the extent to which a specific ability can develop in a certain structure, then we understand the ability in terms of a development, i. e. as a whole which brings this ability to a character particular to the picture or object. To put it even more generally, the term "dimension" describes the extent of the possible paths of development typical of a picture or object, which can be continued in a progression of works. Many conceptual or intentional ideas can be given an artistically satisfactory form only in a series of works, even if each work preserves its independent character.
12 In the conceptional phase the computer is a suitable instrument for developing and testing something such as colour in an artistically effective way. It enables one, very simply, to trace the various possibilities of colours along chosen paths. Thus the possibility arises of capturing the phenomena in a manner which reveals their abilities in a self-referential way, that is in their dimensional structure, and of forming them into a system. The tedious nature of the traditional methods of sketching, especially with regard to colour, dramatically restricts this possibility.
13 In the course of my explorations in art I have investigated three different values of colour: expressive value, formative value and objective or concretive value. The expressive value of colour most certainly forms the start. One could say colour has an expressive value (Ausdruckswert) when it has a form that is supported by an internal or external impulse. The purely expressive value of colour appears most clearly when no external moments of experience of the colour are incorporated in the colour. A form of Impressionism or Expressionism is always attached to the expressive value of colour. Tracing the formative value of colour is a further step. Colour has a formative value (Gestaltwert) if qualities which establish continuities and discontinuities can be discerned in it. The purely formative value of colour results solely from the contexts of the colour itself. Colour acquires objective or concretive value (Gegenstandswert) if it regulates form. The monochrome surface is the simplest way of treating thematically the objective (or concretive) value of colour. This makes it necessary to see colour along with the format, the corpus and the wall or surrounding field. At first colour remains determinative, its re-determinative character is hidden. Colour first becomes re-determinative as regards the surface and image when the monochrome surface develops out of the format and can split up internally into various polychrome, or simply contrasting, situations, so establishing threshold colour values where the form-regulating effect of colour can develop.
14 Although the computer does offer the possibility of working through different variations more quickly, it is not possible using a computer to explore those specific material qualities of colours which first become evident when realised in a sketch. This is where intentional aspects become effective. In this sense an ability runs through a whole series of strategies, in each of these strategies which is linked with a realisation of the idea of ability, one must act in a specific way. In intentional creation the idea of ability appears as dimension, which is first revealed in the picture or object when it synergises with the basic concept of the picture. For me this is the second significant aspect of dimension.
15 To me it also seems important that the idea of ability, when it is realised, can break down preconceived pictorial concepts. In this sense the 'colour-idealistic' (Farbidealistik) - [that is the inner idea or imagination of colour, which comes into effect in conceptual designs] - develops into a 'colour-realistic' (Farbrealistik) - [that is a much wider-ranging experience of colour, based not just on ideas but on concrete observations (seeing and understanding) of colour in various situations and circumstances and on the concrete handling of and acting with colours and their materials].[11] This colour-realistic partially weakens or, in some cases even deconstructs, the constructive character of colours or of other faculties and forces new, intentional, image-formulating situations. In this context one can say: the dimension is the developed relationship between conception and intention.
16 An artist who thinks and works in terms of intentional art will naturally place great emphasis on the abilities and inherent potential associated with materials and forms. He will attempt to understand and apply those methods appropriate to this particular potential. The result is a realism of materials and forms which has absolutely nothing to do with depictive realism. The appeal emanated by materials developed through new technological processes can be a challenge for the artist. But it is a mistake to believe that the mere use of modern materials will produce, per se, a new art. Rather it is the method in which modern materials are used and the way in which they reveal their potential (or abilities) that can show whether an idea has been gained from them. In this context, I believe, the serial structure of the notions Concept - Intention - Dimension has an important role to play.
17 To put it more precisely: the notion of intention is, in conjunction with the notion of dimension, capable both of making concrete the much vaguer understanding of perception and of transforming the perceptualism (or sensualism) of art. The serial structure of the notions Concept - Intention - Dimension can, in addition, deconstruct the polarised modes of understanding of conceptualism and sensualism, as it shows that these notions operate in a constantly changing relationship to each other. Concept and intention are located in a creative flow of dimension.
18 The heuretic (creative, inventive) imagination (ideelle Imagination) or the concept or idea form the starting point in the process of conceptual form-giving (konzeptuelle Gestaltung). This is the potential activity of the work itself. In intentional form-giving (intentionale Gestaltung) the idea, which here also means the concrete understanding of the abilities (capacities) (Fähigkeiten), forms the conclusion. It incorporates the actuality of the work but is not actual until the work has advanced to, or become concrete in, the artistic capacity of materials and forms, that is also to the intention, which is linked to a creativity of objects and abilities. Both aspects of creation flow together in dimension and have the potential of mutual deconstruction. Intentional art is an activity which is based on the creativity of the senses, of understanding, feeling, reason and of things.
Ingo Nussbaumer 1996 |