Reflection 1

     All artwork has to have some sort of representational function, because it comes from a context of both the individual artist intending to create something and the culture as a whole responding to it. As far as the individual, the fact that the artist intends to create a work of art implies that there is some level of representational content that they are putting into the work. In medieval triptychs, the representations are much more obvious, such that the viewer can immediately pick up on the intended associations between the depicted saints and specific Biblical or liturgical elements. Additionally, in modern abstract art or in music, the representational content, although often much less accessible on first glance, is still there to be deciphered. For example, a Futurist painting that uses only geometric figures, given the intention of the artist, can be meant to express abstract conceptions such as speed, virility, or optimism. Certain chord progressions and instrumentations in a musical composition can also be made to represent emotions or even events in the context of narrative. And even in something even more indecipherable, like a Pollack, can be said to representative of the artist and/or their state of mind at the point(s) in time in which the work is created. Thus, on the individual level, the artwork is representational.

     Additionally, because art is made to be enjoyed (or at least witnessed) by others, there is representation that is brought in on the part of observer. Again, in the example of a medieval triptych, there is a socially structured system of symbols that the viewer understands and brings to bear when viewing the work in order to understand it, such as “woman with wheel” represents “St. Catherine.” And in a more abstract context, the societal element may weaken, even substantially, but the viewer is still just as capable of importing some sort of meaning into the work, perhaps even regardless of the original intention of the artist. Two people may view Picasso’s “Guernica” and come away with various understandings given their knowledge of the painting and/or their impression of all the imagery depicted. Two people may view a Rothko and come away with two completely different feelings depending on their personal associations with the colors and shapes in the painting, despite some of the conventions of certain colors associating with certain emotions, etc. In all these cases, however, the observer approaches a work of art with the understanding that there is something there beyond the mere physical stuff (or in the case of music, the purely sensory). Thus, on the one hand, the artist conveys something in the intentional act of crafting a work of art, and on the other hand, the observer brings to bear either their own personal association of symbols or a larger semiotic social structure when approaching something as a work of art and not simply as a thing.