Humanities II (Honors)
Modern art and theories of perception:
Prof. Boedeker
A.
Impressionism (Paris, 1869-1886):
1.
rejected the ______________________ in the art of the mid-19 th Century. Rather than trying to depict the world just as it is ________ ______________, impressionists tried to depict the world as we ______________________ it.
2.
Impressionist painters included Edouard Manet (1832-83), Claude Monet (1840-1926),
Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Georges Seurat
(1859-91), and Mary Cassatt (1845-1926).
3.
Impressionist art expressed the ______________________ theory of perception, developed by Ernst Mach (1838-1916). Phenomenalism rejected __________________
– the view that our minds can perceive or know physical objects directly, just as they are
______________________. Instead, phenomenalists held that perception is merely the
______________________ of our private ______________________, or “sense-data” – such as ______________________ and ______________________ -impressions that we receive directly through the senses.
B.
Postimpressionism (1886-1906):
1.
Like impressionism, postimpressionism tried to capture the ______________________ experience of perceiving an object, but it also included ______________________ (not just light and color) in the depiction of the artist’s personal ______________________ of the world.
2.
Postimpressionist artists included Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890).
3.
Impressionist art expressed Henri Bergson’s (1859-1941) theory of perception. a.
Bergson was a ______________________: he believed that neither
______________________ life nor the ______________________ of species could be adequately explained in merely ______________________ terms: as just the motion of
______________________ according to the laws of physics. Instead, there is a special
_________-_____________ (
élan vital
) – and instinct for life and creativity – at the heart of all living organisms. (Bergon’s élan vital ) is much like Nietzsche’s __________
_____ ___________; both are the basic force that’s the essence of
______________________.)
79

b.
Bergson was also an ______________________: he believed that the human intellect, or
______________________, is just one way of knowing. The intellect is sufficient for knowing ______________________ matter as such, but not ________________, including human life. Life as such – that is, the
élan vital
– can only be known directly through ______________________, which is a kind of non-intellectual instinct.
C.
Cubism (1907-1918):
1.
Cubism attempted to represent in a single painting all possible
______________________ on an object – i.e., the ______________________ one would get of it as one walked ______________________, above, & below it.
2.
The major cubist artists were Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-
1963).
3.
Cubist art expressed the phenomenological theory of perception, as developed by
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). Phenomenology is the attempt to describe the structures of our ______________________, such as ______________________, imagination, memory, and abstract ______________________ (e.g., in mathematics). a.
Husserl pointed out that our perception of an object is not just an organization of the
______________________ that we are ______________________ experiencing. (Thus phenomenalism is an ______________________ theory of perception.) Instead, our perception of an object is essentially ______________________, that is, ordered in
______________________. All perception of objects involves simultaneously
“retaining” ______________________ experiences, being given
______________________ experiences, and anticipating ______________________ experiences. b.
For example, think of listening to a ______________________. If we weren’t simultaneously retaining the notes we have already heard and anticipating the notes that are still to come, we would not hear a melody, but rather merely a
______________________ of simultaneous tomes. c.
Time is also involved in this way when we visually perceive any
______________________ object. As we perceive it, we perceive it as 3-dimensional
(and not just a flat, ___________-dimensional façade) only because we simultaneously retain the aspects of the object we have ______________________ seen, and anticipate the aspects of it that we haven’t _____________ seen.
80