Sontag is arguing that the interpretation, or rather, the “over”-interpretation of art can be damaging to the experience of viewing it.
Why do we ask art to defend itself?
Do we ignore form so that we can focus on content?
Do we ignore a unique, spiritual, intuitive, or personal experience?
Why over-intellectualize and force content?
Is she talking about the way we experience work? Or the way that we don’t?
As Sontag states in the final words of her essay, and as Oscar Wilde also eludes, we need to “recover our sense” and “cutback content so that we can see the thing at all…” The thing is the art object that we should be able to have a personal experience with. Does the thing even matter according to her? Has the “thing” become the residue of critiques and reviews that flutters in and out of conversations leaving the object alone and without emotion? Is it when the object speaks that it then becomes obsolete and irrelevant? Freud tells us to push all the fluff aside so we can get to the real juice of the artist and Marx that we push it aside in order to find the underlying social and political issues. So then, is it either we listen to these guys, find the often passé pseudo-political nature of contemporary art work (that sounds more negative than I mean it to be), and ignore whatever unique feelings we might respond to in the objects material composition? Or do we make an effort to feel and draw from our own personal histories in order to have a relationship with art? Are these our only two options? And could using both be a better way to get to a significant understanding or opinion?
And really, what’s the point? What does the contemporary global community ‘do’ with art anyway? What is it for?
(I mean this question to be posed from a viewers perspective, and not a creator’s. Tell me if that makes sense.)
Also, I would appreciate a very simple and calculated explanation of the rules we use to view, judge, and interpret contemporary art. It should be well written, well researched, and carry both weight and humor. Suggested readings welcomed.
I am of course, relating this essay to the time in which I am making art and living.
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