The Politics of Surrealism in Czechoslovakia between the Wars KAWAKAMI Haruka
This paper examines the political situation of surrealism in Czechoslovakia in 1930s. In Czechoslovakia, Surrealism was developed in the close relationship with communism. For ideological and other reasons, the Prague movement emphasized a dialectical way of thinking. In other words, Surrealism was considered to be a process whereby reality and the self were apprehended through the synergistic and dialectical relationship between deliberate (conscious) and involuntary (unconscious) acts. In addition, surrealism was undergirded by the rule of “recounting truth”. According to Michel Foucault, “recounting truth” involves defining an autonomous position vis-a-vis one's relationship with truth – in other words, it is a technique of governing the self. Karel Teige describes Surrealism as an artistic and practical means for revolutionaries to establish the self. However, attempting to connect Communism and Surrealism is forced: while the Communist ideology attempts to enforce one extreme form of “truth” in order to control people, the “truth” presented by Surrealism is something ever-changing and varying from person to person. By linking Surrealism and Socialist realism, Teige attempted to suggest that Communist culture should develop diversity and complexity. However, with Stalinism wielding power in Czechoslovakia, that idea was only possible for a brief time.
[KAWAKAMI Haruka, The Politics of Surrealism in Czechoslovakia between the Wars. BIGAKU. Vol.67, No.2, pp.049-060 (2016)]
......
Time in viewing photographs: dynamic changes and diversity EMOTO Shiori
Photographs have always been considered as showing the past due to their indexicality. However, this understanding fails to capture how and why viewers perceive time in viewing photographs. This paper presents a more nuanced model, focusing on two key points: annotations which extend photographic contents, such as explanations of photographs, related photographs, knowledge and memories which viewers have, and a triad of semantic organizations – depiction, representation, and reference – which affect viewers’ perceptions. First, this paper will look at the effect these annotations have on perceptions of time in photographs across various viewing situations. Further, we will analyze the connection between these annotations and the triad to help us understand the various and complex relationships photographs have with time, and how these relationships translate to the viewing experience. We will use these insights to explore how perceptions of time can vary based on photographic viewing conditions. By considering all of this as a whole, we can build a greater understanding of perceptions of time in viewing photographs, with much more depth than the current “past” model.
[EMOTO Shiori, Time in viewing photographs: dynamic changes and diversity. BIGAKU. Vol.67, No.2, pp.061-072 (2016)]
134 Representation of the Eucharist in the Byzantine Church Decoration - The Programme of the Prothesis in the New Church of the Tokalı Kilise - TSUJI Eriko
The Tokalı Kilise has a rare architectural plan, which is the reason for its local nickname, ‘the Church of the Buckle’. This paper enquired closely into the programme of the northern small apse, that is, the Prothesis of the New Church. The Prothesis was used for the preparation of the Eucharist in the liturgy, often decorated by iconography related to the Communion. The Hospitality of Abraham and the Communion of Mary of Egypt under the conch emphasize the Eucharistic meaning of the place. In this article, it is focused on the themes with irregular direction and with a different layout. Christ is duplicated in the Marriage Feast at Cana spanning between the north frieze and the half spandrel of the eastern arcade. In the half spandrel, there are the servant filling the jar, the steward tasting wine, and Christ’s right hand alone blessing the water. Above her son’s hand, Mary keeps the water of ordeal in the Trial by Water. Her gesture of accepting the cup from the priest resembles closely those of Apostles taking wine from Christ in the Communion of Apostles. These themes stressing the relation to the Communion are located in the place adjacent to the Prothesis.
[TSUJI Eriko, Representation of the Eucharist in the Byzantine Church Decoration - The Programme of the Prothesis in the New Church of the Tokalı Kilise -. BIGAKU. Vol.67, No.2, pp.025-036 (2016)]
......
Des aspects de la compréhension sur l’histoire de l’art moderne par Barr et Barnes - autour de leur réception deDe Chirico et l’art africain - KIMIZU Chisato
Des années trente, des galeries, des musées américains ont commencé à organiser des expositions surréalistes, dont le mouvement artistique né à Paris en 1924. C’est en ce moment-là qu’Alfred Barr Jr., premier directeur du MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) a présenté la composition opposée de l’art moderne européen: abstraction contre dada, surréalisme, en organisant une série d’expositions en 1936 intitulées «Cubism Abstract Art» et «Fantastic Art, Dada, Surréalisme». Nous porterons notre attention sur l’exposition Giorgio de Chirico, se tenant dans la galerie de Julien Levy à N.Y. et comptant parmi les deux expositions. Apparemment, on peut considérer que cette exposition a eu lieu dans le dessein de présenter le surréalisme aux Américains. Cependant, il est bien connu qu’Albert C. Barnes, écrit la préface insérée dans le catalogue, ne s’intéresse pas au surréalisme. Donc, se réservant à traiter de Chirico en tant que surréaliste, on essaye de trouver dans cet artiste une tendance du retour au classicisme des artistes d’avant-garde, connu au nom du «retour de l’ordre». Ce travail nous donnerons un point de vue à partir duquel nous réfléchirons à nouveau sur les mouvements artistiques européens modernes.
[KIMIZU Chisato, Des aspects de la compréhension sur l’histoire de l’art moderne par Barr et Barnes - autour de leur réception deDe Chirico et l’art africain -. BIGAKU. Vol.67, No.2, pp.037-048 (2016)]
135 An Iroquois in Paris and a Crusoe on a Desert Island: Kant’s Aesthetics and the Process of Civilization OTABE Tanehisa
In section 2 of the third Critique (1790) Kant refers to the Iroquois sachem who said the cook-shops (not the palace) in Paris pleased him. The sachem seems to be a barbarian ensnared by appetite and incapable of disinterested pleasure. My paper, however, argues first that Kant, extracting this episode from “The History of New France” (1744) written by a French Jesuit missionary, Charlevoix, tacitly advocates the idea of the noble savage, thereby giving the Iroquois sachem the function of criticizing a luxurious civilization. Second, I show that in the “General Remark on the exposition of aesthetic reflective judgments,” Kant positively evaluates a castaway Crusoe (who is put together in one context with the Iroquois sachem in section 2) as a person who withdraws from civilized society with the consciousness that society is far from the moral ideal. The Iroquois sachem and the castaway Crusoe are examples that anticipate section 83 in the second part of the third Critique, which focuses on the role of the faculty of taste in the process of civilization, thereby incorporating Kant’s theory of taste in the first part of the third Critique into his whole system.
[OTABE Tanehisa, An Iroquois in Paris and a Crusoe on a Desert Island: Kant’s Aesthetics and the Process of Civilization. BIGAKU. Vol.67, No.2, pp.001-012 (2016)]
......
Objectivity of Aesthetic Judgement and Evaluative Perception GENKA Tohru
In daily life, we judge various things aesthetically. For example: “this picture is graceful”, “this landscape is dynamic”, and “his clothes are old-fashioned”. One aspect of our ordinary practices concerning aesthetic judgement seems to support objectivism, according to which, aesthetic judgment can be assessed as right or wrong based on some objective ground. However, another aspect of our practices seems to support subjectivism (or extreme relativism), according to which, aesthetic judgement is a mere expression of subjective impressions and cannot be assessed as right or wrong. In this study, I survey the dispute between objectivism and subjectivism in recent analytic aesthetics, and present an approach that supports objectivism. I argue that some aesthetic judgement is based on “evaluative perception”. It is a special class of perceptual experience affected by evaluative component of emotion and has Gestalt-like “parts-whole structure”. Furthermore, I claim that evaluative perceptions and aesthetic judgement based on it can be assessed as right or wrong in a similar way as ordinary perception and judgement based on it (e.g. colour perception and colour judgement) can be assessed.
[GENKA Tohru, Objectivity of Aesthetic Judgement and Evaluative Perception. BIGAKU. Vol.67, No.2, pp.013-024 (2016)]
The Bigaku (Aesthetics) is published biannually, in collaboration with Bijutsu Shuppan-sha by the Japanese Society for Aesthetics, c/o Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, 46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan Communications regarding informations, subscriptions and exchange of periodicals or news should be sent to the Society.
136