Historical Narratives and the Philosophy of Art

In Historical Narratives and the Philosophy of Art, Whitney Davis examines the temporal location of the beginning of art history and introduces various methods that have been employed to understand an object’s art historicity. Davis states that “wholeness must actually be found elsewhere – in the intrinsic historicity of objects neither whole nor comparable in the art historian’s sense”, and goes on to assert that it is when this wholeness is achieved that art history begins. Therefore, to seek this beginning, it is imperative for us to abandon our understanding of art as physical objects but instead begin to view it for its intrinsic historicity. Davis brings up semiotics and depictiveness in her article, and suggests that depictiveness begins as “a palimpsest of intentions”. From this, it can be understood that wholeness is achieved through the projection of our own mental processes on the art object. This is to say that the art object is merely a physical manifestation of our inner worlds and is therefore not an absolute representation of the maker’s intentionality. Furthermore, as suggested by Davis, depictiveness emerged not out of the past but of the future. If the beginning of art history is when this wholeness is achieved, I would argue that this beginning cannot simply be located in the temporal dimension. The beginning is in intentionality itself, which continues to be rewritten. In trying to perceive the beginning in such tangible terms, it seems that we’re being brought forward and backward in time simultaneously, through the missing link that is intentionality. Thus, the attempt to locate the beginning temporally seems futile as it is impossible to locate a relative position in time as this perspective of wholeness defies our previously held concept of chronology. Perhaps, this beginning is continuously occurring with every superimposition on the palimpsest of intentions and with the development of external history. Art history can therefore not be understood with our common understanding of the concept of time. It cannot be arranged chronologically but should instead be viewed as a meshwork of various forces that act dynamically. It is rewritten with every moment, putting the future and the past on the same plane to be understood in its entirety. In my opinion, embracing such a perspective of the beginning of art history may finally enable us to abandon any rationality or logic that has been used to comprehend art and finally appreciate art history for what it is.