The Aesthetic Principle and a Factor in Art Essay

The Aesthetic Principle and a Factor in Art - Essay Example According to Bullough, distance plays an essential part in generating an authentic aesthetic response. Bullough supposes that there has to be a quantity of distance gained between an object or work of art and a viewer. This will make the observer understand the object or work of art. On the other hand, Bell’s views are drawn from Kant. Both Kant and Bell agree that an object or work of art can neither be intrinsically moral nor cognitive. In addition, they both agree that the value of an object or work of art is found in its form alone. Bell’s notion of significant form is representative in its clarity. Bell perceives the aesthetic response on the basis of a global standard and the source of the aesthetic emotion in the work of art or object (Arnold and Iverson 73). It may be valuable to approach an art object or work with physical distance and focus on its significant form because of several reasons. First, when the appropriate distance is observed, splendor can be observed and realized in an object or work of art. This does not mean that an artist or observer should be impersonal with regard to art, but instead, the viewer should separate himself emotionally and physically enough, so as to attain an accurate aesthetic response to an object or work of art. It is also essential to focus on a significant form of an object or work of art (Arnold and Iverson 76). Moreover, focusing on its significant form will assist an individual to focus at a work of art without preconceptions and predispositions and without being preoccupied by extraneous connections with the work or object of art. Second, according to Bullough, if a viewer does not position himself at an appropriate distance away from the object or work of art, he will become excessively enclosed in his own life. For example, in Othello, the jealous spouse looking at the play cannot realize it because he is so much entangled by how the play is personally affecting his life.