Art: The Two Extremes Of Contextualism And Isolationism

Art is never the easiest thing to interpret and are often quite difficult. The question that is asked is then what factors should be used in order to help interpretation. The two extremes of interpreting art is isolationism and contextualism. Isolationism is where the knowledge of the artist 's historical background and biography are irrelevant the appreciating the work of art that they created. While contextualism views that the artwork should be apprehended in its context or setting at all times, that it is much richer if the artwork is approached with that knowledge.Contextualists believe that all of the arts should be apprehended in this way. Difficulties that arise when trying to interpret a work of art, such as having confliction interpretations of the artwork. How can one resolve this difficulty? Art critics describe this temptation as “intentional fallacy” The fallacy of believing that what the artist of the work intention is the definition of what it really is. That a work of art should not need help from the artist to stand on its own.”If he has not sufficiently realized his intentions within the work, forcing the recipient to go outside for help, this is held to be an artistic defect.” Once the art is completed by the artist and is put out into the world, then it no longer only belongs to the artists and is open to interpretation from the public.The artist doesn’t hold the final say of the interpretation of the work of art, new critics can